Meidastreet inks and Niagara IV CIS Review

[JohnJ80]

I've pretty much had it with being bent over the barrel by Epson and their ink pricing, so I set off to see if I could find an alternative. I picked the Mediastsreet G7 Generations inks for my R1800. Here is what I discovered.

Print Quality:
I evaluated the Mediastreet inks and compared them to the OEM ink. I bought a test set of cartridges from Mediastreet loaded with their inks to test this with. One of the reasons I wanted to test theirs is that they have many profiles for their inks on other papers that I use. In addition, they will do a profile for free if you print the test sheet and send it to them.

What I have found so far is that the two inks (OEM and Mediastreet) are very close in gamut with Mediastreet being somewhat wider gamut in the greens and reds. You can verify this by uploading an OEM profile and one that was made for the same paper with the Epson inks. This link will then put together a 3D gamut comparison. Very cool and very instructive:
ICCView - ICC-profile as 3D-model, Colormanagement

Using the MS supplied profiles for Epson Premium Glossy and Ilford Galeria Smooth Pearl, I find that the MS has a better rendering of greens and reds, that Epson seems to favor the cyans and yellows a bit more. Contrast seems to be a touch lower on MS prints over OEM ink but neither are in perfect agreement with my calibrated monitor and seem to be off about the same amount but in opposite directions. However, the MS ink seemed to render more true to life colors than did the Epson inks which seemed to favor punchier prints. From my calibrated monitor, I would estimate that both the OEM and MS inks are off from the monitor by equal amounts (small) but in different directions.

This may be, and probably is, a result of a profiling. Doing a profile for this will probably rectify this situation - and I confirmed this later in my test.

This difference is probably a function of the profiles and what Epson believes most consumers find more pleasing to the eye as opposed to the MS profiles that are done using the same profiling one would do with a profiling instrument. This might change if one were to profile the OEM inks on the OEM papers for your printer - they might then agree more closely (although they are pretty close right now).

I do think that what I am learning from this is that one can expect to get very close agreement with the OEM inks and exceed their performance in some areas as well.

Longevity testing:
1. Prints put in window with west facing exposure 7/28/06
2. Prints tested are two that are full OEM ink and profle and one that is Mediastreet Ink G7 with Mediastreet supplied profile for Ilford Galeria Smooth Pearl. One OEM was Ilford and one OEM was Epson Prem Glossy.

8/12/06: So far there is no fading from covered to uncovered sides of print on either print and there is no fading relative ink to ink between the two prints after about 2 weeks.

Installation of Niagara IV CIS system
Took about 45 minutes - mostly filling the system. Put in the carts, did 2 cleaning cycles and printed 5 prints. Fiddled for about 5 minutes with getting the tubing positioned properly. Same results as with the cartridges. No problems, no issues. Done.
I purchased Colorvision's Printfix Pro and profiled most of my papers.

The Niagara IV CIS from Mediastreet is a very trim package that fits very nicely alongside the printer. The cartridges also seem well made and include poppet valves.

Routing of the ink ribbon needs to be done with care to avoid any sharp bends or compressions. I removed the sticky tape pad from the two clips on the outside and kept it on the inside when I determined that these were causing compression on the ink lines and starving it of ink.

The entire system:



Here is a picture of the ink reservoirs as an entire package.
side/end view:
Top view:

Here is a picture of an individual tank (yellow). Note that the ink lines go UNDER the ink bottles and the tubes do not go in the top of the reservoir as on other CIS systems. Also note the white filter on the top to make sure no dust or debris gets in the top. The plug on top is connected so that there are two plugs - one for the air hole and one for the fill hole. The air hole is where the filter is inserted. To move the system, you put the plugs in both holes and the reservoirs are tightly sealed.



Here is a picture of the cartridges. There are one unit but really 8 cartridges joined by a brace. These have poppet valves in the bottom that are very similar to what the OEM cartridges have. There are no sponges in these carts.



To set up the system, you dump ink in the reservoir and using the included syringe, stick it in the poppet valve and pull a vacuum on the system. Doing this about 3 times per cart will draw ink into the cart and into the syringe.

Total set up time was about 45 minutes and very simple.

The only issue I had was realizing that the clips where squeezing the tubes and causing the head to be short of ink in certain colors. I removed the double sided sticky tape from the outer two clips (as noted prior) and the thing works great. I passed this on to Mediastreet and they are investigating and will probably recommend that this be shipped as I had suggested.

I then profiled, using PrintFix Pro, 4 papers - Red River Polar Satin, Red River Polar Matte, Epson Premium Glossy, and Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl. In all cases, I got virtually EXACT prints to what I saw on my calibrated monitor. IMO, the profile that I did for Epson Premium Glossy exceeds what Mediastreet supplied and the OEM one for the OEM ink.

I have more printing to do to verify and tweak. But I now know that the prints that I can get from this system and ink are the equal of the OEM ink. If I do custom ICC profiles, I can exceed the OEM provided profiles with OEM ink. I did not profile the OEM ink to see if I could improve that (I'm pretty sure I could).

Preliminary results after a 2 weeks in the sun show equivalent performance (no change) from the OEM prints/ink.
My other conclusion from this is that the N4 system from Mediastreet is much more integrated and less of a kludge that some of the CIS systems that have gone before. The package has fixed many of the issues that make CIS systems somewhat of a tinkerer's nightmare at times - the ink tubes through drilled holes in the top of ink bottles, the difficulty in transportation, the fiddling with loading the system with ink etc.... I would expect others to begin to take this lead and provide more finished systems but right now, this looks like the most complete and trim package out there.

J.

[JHeishman]

Thank you for the time you put in to this, i have been looking for just this information. i will be ordering mine today. have a great day.

[happusa]

I have been using MS Niagara system on my Epson 2400. Everything John said is right on. Another good side is the cost. The MS system and refill inks are cheaper if you purchase through B&H. I like paying about $2.00 a cartridge. Each 4oz refill bottle is equal to about 10 cartridges.