Ink costs
Finally, manufacturers have agreed on a norm to compare ink consumption in their printers. This was done with the help of the ISO. The procedure is serious enough that when a manufacturer makes the effort to provide these ISO values, we won’t have to do the tests ourselves. And in fact it‘s better that we don‘t do them at all. We readily admit that their test conditions are more rigorous than ours for at least two reasons:
- The base document is neutral in the way that no manufacturer is favored. Although it appears minor, the conception of this document was the product of bitter negotiation.
- and especially, the given values are an average of autonomy tests in which three complete sets of each cartridge are used up. We had trouble even getting a second set from manufacturers.
All the same, the adoption of this norm is still recent and dates to the end of 2006 and beginning of 2007. On the one hand, all the latest models released have not undergone this procedure, and on the other, manufacturers that do carry it out, don’t necessarily give the ISO autonomy for office AND photo. At times we only find one value and it will be up to us to take up where they left off...when we have the cartridges, of course.
In the end, compiling these mixed figures with our tests gives the following:
When you see a zero, this means that the manufacturer didn’t give the ISO value and we did not have the cartridges to perform our autonomy tests.
Note: for Brother, the figures are based on their product claims and not on the ISO values. They should adopt this norm in the near future.
Costs were established with the cartridges that came with the printers. However, it is possible to reduce this. For example, the HP C3180 can take C4180 cartridges. These are more expensive at the cash register, but a better value in use because they allow us to save 20 cents per 10x15 photo.
So overall, we should keep in mind:In the
lower level (less than 80 euros), the most economical printer for ink use is the
Canon Pixma MP160.
In the
80 to 130 euros slot, the winner is the
Canon Pixma MP510. The
Epson RX560 also does well here. Note that the per photo costs of the HP C4180 and C6180 include ink + paper (and not just ink for the competitors), because of the HP photo packs that are particularly attractive. However, with the C4180, this photo cost is not with the photo cartridge. If you want to make the drops disappear, you will have to buy this, increasing the price to 56 cts per print, which includes ink plus paper.
It’s only in the high end that Canon has competition with the
Canon MP600, Epson RX640 and
HP Photosmart C6180 being almost equal. All are separate cartridge models with photo ink and very fine drops assuring very high quality for photos. If you are hesitating between the three, office print quality could be the deciding factor. Here, HP is in the lead, followed by Canon, and then Epson. HP also has the large advantage of offering an interesting paper + ink kit.
One last useful detail…The costs given here are those made with the cartridges that came with the printer. The concept here was that consumers will then buy them again instead of looking for alternative compatibles. In each product’s page, especially that of the Lexmark X2550 and X3550, we come back to this characteristic giving you the compatible ink costs, which are sometimes a lot more expensive. However, they may lead to ink costs that are cut in half.
