Canon Printer Ink

Running a photo printer can be somewhat expensive, with paper and printer ink cartridge expenses adding up somewhat rapidly of you are printing lots of photos.

Trust, I know this first hand as my wife used to print out a seeming bajillion pictures of the kids when they were young.

In interviewing professional photographers, they only use the manufacturer’s printer cartridges, for example Canon printer cartridges (with Canon printer ink) for Canons and HP printer cartridges (with HP printer ink) for HP printers. At least with the pros I talked to, they did not want to take a chance with the colors being slightly different or possibly cheap ink clogging up their expensive professional printers. But the official cartridges are expensive and often printer manufacturers actually make much more money selling those than the printers themselves. This is analogous to shaver manufacturers almost giving away the shaving and making lots of money on the blades.

If buying official cartridges, certainly the safest bet, it plans to buy ahead. Local stores all seem to charge full list price, not that I’ve done a super extensive survey, yet discounts are available online. For example, click here for Amazon prices – a nice discount last I checked.

For most of us, we can also buy compatible cartridges for less and be quite satisfied. I’ve used compatibles for HP, Canon, and Epsom brand printers with no problems whatsoever.

Another option is having your printer cartridges refilled. For example there is a local store called Cartridge World USA I use when convenient. They are actually a franchise that has stores all over the place.

And our last option, perhaps the messiest although not too bad, and the cheapest, is to replace the Canon printer ink in your used cartridges yourself. There are plenty of kits available very inexpensively, some Canon specific and some that work with a variety of printers.

One well reviewed on Amazon is the Dataproducts 60391 InkStation Multi-Brand Refilling Kit, currently available at an over 75% discount at Amazon. It seems to refill nearly every thing, including the Canon BJ-10E, BJ-10EX, BJ-10sx, BJ-10V, BJ-20, BJ-5, BX-200, FAX B190, FAX B200, and FAX B220, FaxPhone B60, B70, B75, B740, Starwriter 60, 70, 80, 85, 95, PRO 5000, VP 500, 600e, 610, 620, 680J, 2100, 4000, 4100, 4200, 4300, 4400, 4550, 4650, 5000, 5100, 5500, S100, S200, S200x, S300, S330D, i70, i250, i350, i550, i850, i6500, i450, i470D, i455, i560, i860, i475D, i950, i960, i900D, i9100, 3000, 6000, 6100, 6200, 6500, 8200, S400, S450, S500, S520, S530D, S600, S630, S750, S4500, S800, S820, S820D, S830, S830D, S900, S9000, MultiPASS C20, C30, C50, C70, C80, C530, C545, C560, C635, C2500, C3000, C3500, C5000, C5500, F20, CFX B380IF, C100, C400, C600F, C755, CP-200, CP-300, F30, F50, F60, F80, FAX B210C, B215C, B230C, BJC-55, BJC-85, Photo i320, BJC-8200, I9100, i950, S800, S820, S820D, S830D, S900, and S9000. Whew, what a list!

If you are looking to save money, and don’t mind a little work, replacing the Canon Printer Ink in your cartridges when empty with compatible ink yourself is a great approach.