Canon SLR Reviews

Canon CLI 8M Magenta Ink Tank

If you use your Canon Pixma printer for photo printing, you might have observed that the color cartridges seem to drain fast. The engineers at Canon are aware of this and have helped resolve the problem. Instead of requiring a complete ink cartridge replacement, the cartridge was designed as 2 modules: cartridge transfer mechanism and an ink tank. This is the ink tank. It’s a refill for your ink cartridge and is an economical way of adding ink without having to pay for an entire cartridge. It’s a sensible alternative.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Canon Ink Preferred
Have been using Canon 8 ink in my Canon Pixma iP520 photo printer for over 3 years. I sell prints from this printer.

I teach digital photography and recommend printer manufacturer’s inks to assure quality results. “Compatible ink” means ink cartridge will work in that printer. Quality varies considerably.

5 Stars Canon CLI-8M Ink Tank – Magenta
I use the CLI-8Y Yellow Ink Tank for my Canon IP4200. All my ink tanks typically get used up at almost the same rate on the Canon IP4200 so I usually just order the Canon CLI-8 4-Color Multipack Ink Tanks package, which consists of: Magenta CLI-8M (this ink tank), Cyan CLI-8C, Yellow CLI-8Y, and CLI-8Bk Black.

*If you need all 4 colors, the Canon CLI-8 4-Color Multipack Ink Tanks is a much better deal.*

Quality

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The CLI-8 ink tanks produce pleasing tones and true-to-life colors for photos. I find that the high quality photo prints rival those from the photo lab.

Compatibility

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The CLI-8C, CLI-8M, CLI-8Y, and CLI-8Bk Ink Tanks are compatible with the Canon IP and MP Inkjets. DO NOT confuse these ink tanks with the closely-named CLI-8P ink tank series: CLI-8PC and CLI-8PM – these ink tanks are NOT NECESSARILY compatible with your printer. If you have a 5-tank printer, chances are the CLI-8PC and CLI-8PM aren’t compatible with your printer!

Value

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I stint on ink and print my documents almost exclusive in grayscale at the DRAFT quality mode (my Canon IP4200 printer uses the CLI-8 color cartridges even though I don’t print in color). I can get about a full ream’s worth of paper (double-sided) on 1 cartridge. However, with higher quality printer, the color ink cartridges get consumed much more quickly.

It is evident from the reviews that the price of ink is a major concern for most people. You should ideally use only genuine Canon ink cartridges but if you’re strapped for cash, you can purchase the cheaper generic versions (non-OEM) of the CLI-8 cartridges.

- CLI-8 4-Pack

- CLI-8 Magenta <-- non-OEM equivalent of this cartridge (Canon CLI-8M)

- CLI-8 Cyan

- CLI-8 Yellow

- CLI-8 Black

I have not verified that they do in fact work as claimed so try them at your own risk!

Bottom Line

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The Canon CLI-8C/M/Y/BK ink cartridges may be expensive, but they deliver consistently high quality text and photo prints.

3 Stars Ink is fine; cost isn’t
We have all been warned that this is the strategy followed by many printer companies – keep printer prices low and charge relatively high prices for the ink. This is certainly the case here – I paid just under $15. In about a month, it is already below half and I do very little color printing.

Other than that, the ink and the printer works very well (I have a Canon MX 700).

3 Stars Canon MP830 printer magenta ink
My husband insisted on the Canon printer because it’s supposed to print better quality photos. What we didn’t know was that we had to get Canon photo paper; it will not print correctly on Kodak or other photo papers. That aside, the printer ink colors are OK, but the printer goes through more ink than any HP printer I’ve ever owned. The ink is fine, the printer just seems to run out too quickly, particularly the cyan and magenta colors. My next printer will be another HP printer.

3 Stars Rip-off
The ink works well. No problems. But as you know all printer inks are a real rip-off.

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