Canon PRO-1000 ink consumption notes

[panos_m]

My Canon PRO-1000 ink consumption after 9 months (I calculated this right after the second maintenance tank was full).

The printer is used 2-3 times a week. In one occasion was left unused for 16 days and in another 9 days.

The printer stays always on almost from the beginning and the ink maintenance setting is to OFF the last 3 months.

Total surface printed 45,413 square meters (488,821 square feet), pages 290 (mostly A3+ to A2). 50/50 matt/photo, 70/30 color/bw.

Total ink on paper 517ml. Total ink in the maintenance tanks (both of them) 470ml. Ratio 52/48.

The most used inks from more to less:

• Chroma Optimizer
• Gray
• Yellow
• Matte Black
• Photo Gray
• Photo Black
• Cyan
• Blue
• Red
• Photo Magenta
• Photo Cyan
• Magenta

I will recalculate this when I will replace the third maintenance tank.

 

[Dsnoir]

Interesting know this, I have just started printing with the PRO 1000, mainly mono, and am quite impressed with the ink usage, allowing for the setup instillation draining quite a lot. Look forward to your future posts.

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

Thanks for the report, this is interesting and a good data points.

At first I thought you were waaaaaay off on your math, then I realized what you wrote as "45,413 square meters (488,821 square feet)" I would write as "45.413 square meters (488.821 square feet)". 517 ml over 489 ft^2 comes to 1.06 ml/ft^2--which sounds very close. It may be slightly low--other estimates put it more like 1.20 ml/ft^2--but I suspect that might be due to at least some of your prints having borders, which may not be accounted for (do you know whether they are?).

Also, the 52% ink on the paper / 48% ink into the maintenance tanks is a useful but sobering reminder about pigment-ink printer use and costs. I would not have thought it was quite that bad for your stated use, but your data seems carefully put-together.

So good report!

 

[mikek200]

NAwlins,

I did some math on my R3000 a while back, I think it was the day after I ordered the Canon Pro-100 printer.,my guess,it will cost me..1/2 of what I laid out ,on the R3000

I am not a professional printer, but I take this hobby very seriously. Maybe I print,2-5 prints per month?

Since 2011,I have spent $5500.00 on ink alone

I don't even want to guess, what I spent on high end paper., high end Canon cameras, Leica lenses, Zeiss lenses;'..,yup this is an expensive hobby, but it's great fun

Here's a few my wife & I took up in Maine:

http://mike397x.zenfolio.com/p160715561?customize=3

Man,I did a lot of printing,when I came back from that trip.

Enjoy

Mike

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

Maybe I print,2-5 prints per month?

Since 2011,I have spent $5500.00 on ink alone

Wow, an average of $76 a month on ink for 2-5 prints, so $15 to $38 per print on ink--ouch! I have a little Epson R280 dye-ink printer at home, and it seems happy enough left for weeks without printing. So my volume is low but my economics are fine. Very different class of printer though.

I ordered the Canon Pro-100 printer

You will probably find your ink cost stats much less depressing. We have one at the office, and it does not seem to consume anywhere near the amount of ink your R3000 must have needed for cleanings etc. Our Pro-100 sits for extended periods with probably no prints, and somebody prints several, then it sits again. Yes, before it prints for the first time in a while, it self-cleans. I can't give you stats, except that I have not changed an ink cartridge in more than three months, and these are little 13 ml cartridges (I think the R3000's are 26 ml?). So whatever it is using for self-cleaning can't be much. And AFAIK we've never had an actual clog.

 

[panos_m]

Thanks for the report, this is interesting and a good data points.

At first I thought you were waaaaaay off on your math, then I realized what you wrote as "45,413 square meters (488,821 square feet)" I would write as "45.413 square meters (488.821 square feet)". 517 ml over 489 ft^2 comes to 1.06 ml/ft^2--which sounds very close. It may be slightly low--other estimates put it more like 1.20 ml/ft^2--but I suspect that might be due to at least some of your prints having borders, which may not be accounted for (do you know whether they are?).

Yes I used comma. It's 45 m² (489 ft²). All my prints have borders a least a few mm but the PBK prints are clearcoated "overall" so the CO covers almost all the paper surface.

Also, the 52% ink on the paper / 48% ink into the maintenance tanks is a useful but sobering reminder about pigment-ink printer use and costs. I would not have thought it was quite that bad for your stated use, but your data seems carefully put-together.

So good report!

To reduce the cost I started printing for others.

 

[Giox]

Panagiotis καλημέρα

Can you provide an estimate of the cost of an A2 print ?

Best Regards

George

 

[Ken60]

There are a few facts to discuss first.... how much you pay for your cartridges is of course important , as is the border of plain paper around the printed area.

So working with the internal cost calculator , my last A2 print had a border of around an inch for framing , used 2.52 ml of ink , at todays price of £38.29 per 80ml ..... Around £1.20 of ink for the print. I Also did a rough calculation on paper , using Innoval a 25" x 17" print would cost around £3.34 for the paper. So I estimate £4.54 for the total price.

Interestingly , The Print Space would charge around £30 plus delivery for a similar size Giclee print on a quality cotton rag.

 

[Giox]

Sounds quite reasonable.

Do you know if it comes with full cartridges upon delivery?

thank you :

 

[Ken60]

Mine did , but you have to remember that a fair amount of ink is used to charge the inner reservoirs and charge the lines, thus you will not get as many prints as the second set.

If you think that a cartridge is around £40 and there are 12 , thats £480 plus a maintenance tank.. so £500 worth and the printer can be found for only a few hundred more !

See this link for the amount used and a review. of the printer. Since this review was written they have updated the firmware and it will now print up to about 43 inches long.

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/canon-pro-1000-printer-review/

 

[kamma1]

There are a few facts to discuss first.... how much you pay for your cartridges is of course important , as is the border of plain paper around the printed area.

So working with the internal cost calculator , my last A2 print had a border of around an inch for framing , used 2.52 ml of ink , at todays price of £38.29 per 80ml ..... Around £1.20 of ink for the print. I Also did a rough calculation on paper , using Innoval a 25" x 17" print would cost around £3.34 for the paper. So I estimate £4.54 for the total price.

Interestingly , The Print Space would charge around £30 plus delivery for a similar size Giclee print on a quality cotton rag.

Useful confirmation - would you also estimate about an equal amount going to maintenance over time? And roughly how much do you print per month?

 

[Giox]

Thank you!

 

[Ken60]

Useful confirmation - would you also estimate about an equal amount going to maintenance over time? And roughly how much do you print per month?

I find this part confusing, this is because though I have used 2 maintenance tanks and my first set of inks , this is not so simple.... even if I go to the calculator and look for total ink used ( printed on paper) the figure is a lot less than 12 x 80ml = 960 ml . So do I say the 960 minus used figure = waste ...... NO because remember the post where I said that out of the first set you will see a whole lot go charging the reservoirs and lines.

I have no way to gauge this , or to contradict the usages. Suffice to say that I have had this for just over a year and enjoyed the output , yes it has a cost ...so does a car ! Alternative is , as stated before £30 plus postage etc £35 for a 17"x 25" or add the cost of a 50% ink waste to the figures I calculated above ....£4.54 plus another £1.2 for waste ink Makes a print price £5.74 as against £35 . I am still ahead and in TOTAL CONTROL !

I have said in this forum before and my figures show it over and over .... paper is the biggest cost !

 

[panos_m]

Panagiotis καλημέρα

Can you provide an estimate of the cost of an A2 print ?

Best Regards

George

6ml of ink for an A2 print including the ink used for maintenance.

 

[Donald B]

Panagiotis καλημέρα

Can you provide an estimate of the cost of an A2 print ?

Best Regards

George

6ml of ink for an A2 print including the ink used for maintenance.

 

[Philip Eihuyar]

Panagiotis καλημέρα

Can you provide an estimate of the cost of an A2 print ?

Best Regards

George

6ml of ink for an A2 print including the ink used for maintenance.

That's what I'm getting from my pro10s as well

Don

WIth a Pro 10, on average, I switch out all cartridges once every 2 1/2 -3 months. Rough estimate is between $25-$35 per month in ink, depending on how many prints done. Not a heavy printer use though. 10 8x10" per month. It doesn't seem that the cleaning cycles are too costly. I am on a Q-image auto scheduled of printout every 58 hours (to avoid the 60hr limit. The Pro 1000 also has a software program that will tell you exactly how much ink is used per print job.

 

[panos_m]

The Pro 1000 also has a software program that will tell you exactly how much ink is used per print job.

Yes but the program doesn't tell how much ink is used for cleaning.

 

[Ken60]

It is better than that , if you export the print data in CSV format , and the open it in a spreadsheet , you can see how much ink was used from each cartridge for each print .... over the last year !

Such amazing data, but nothing tells you how much ink is in each cartridge and how much used in each clean .

 

[kamma1]

Since the cleaning cycles are timed, the amount used on an individual cleaning isn't really as useful as the amount used over a month, and the first post in this thread seems to give a very good idea of the monthly maintenance cost in ink.

 

[blanco77]

Hi there. Reading some of these costs for printing really is quite nightmarish! I feel a bit down even! 5 quid for a print done at home sounds toe crunching in expense?

I should tell you how I arrived here. I have a DLR Nikon with lovely, expensive top of the class prime glass. Hooray for me. It’s a fx Nikon 600, yes, it has the grease spots and an autofocus slower than Joan Rivers arthritic hand.

My luck at buying Nikon preceded with the Uber ridiculous confusing F70. You can understand my reservations coming to home prints?!

I do have a nice, simple and reliable Nikon FA. I love this camera, my aforementioned lenses will, or should MF onto it, at least on full manual. If not Nikon 50mm,1.8’s are being practically given away.

My pipe dream was initially laser printing, only black and white, after being sent away to be processed and scanned from Illford XP5. Hell let’s have 36 6x4 and a contact sheet on disc!

I’ll have the roll scanned, printed and ready to enlarge to 10 x 8, maybe I’d even send some colour film off as well. Printed as and when I’ve finished putting a feint S curve in Photoshop.

So lots of factors. suggestions welcome, I like the idea, the romance of analog until the end, does this merit any point tho? Should I just get a desk top printer, pay hideous amounts for ink and just be done or send away for processing, also just as likely to incur cost, effort and loss of digital dpi and then pay to laser/colour print?

Thanks for any help and I do realise the several factors (2-3) at best useable in the can, I sympathise with any D600 owners! My glass is nice with 20mm and 60 mm primes, at least I got those right. A 28-70mm one day? The Vr2 28-300 also tempting but a complete overhaul and variety app on the zoom. Be well. S