Black pens

A quick post about my undying, unconditional love for black pens, featuring my 5 different ones which I usually use (not including the Uni-ball Signo DX 0.38 which I also like very much, especially for writing, but do not have at the very moment). Kind of a review/recommendation.

1. Rotring Isographs. These are actually the technical pens I bought for strictly schoolwork (clean construction works, plans etc) but I think they are great otherwise as well. A huge con is that they are ridiculously expensive, but I still have a 0.25, a 0.35 and a 0.5; and 0.13 and 0.8 spare nibs. As expensive as they may be, they do last a lifetime, so maybe it's worth it.
I do have a huge problem with the 0.13 though - it clogged right after the first use (even though I washed it immediately after using it) and no amount of special cleaning liquid seems to breathe life back into it. And I do not have enough courage to disassemble the nib. Oh well.
2. Copic Multiliner SP. I've tried multiple varieties of this, and for what it's worth, the 0.1 is my favourite of all 0.1 pens - it has an incredibly thin line, it is easy to replace and refill. It isn't cheap, but it's no Rotring either, and it's also refillable. (And a seemingly superficial detail, but I love the design of the pen.)
3. Pilot V5. This is a relatively cheap, disposable alternative, and it can be bought in any stationery, so it's my go-to pen if there's nothing else (that, or the aforementioned Uni-ball Signo DX).
4. Pentel EnerGel. This is a recent discovery of mine, later I'll explain why I like it so much. The only problem is that it isn't widely sold in Hungarian stationeries, and even though it's a cheap pen, if I were to order it, with the shipping it would be rather expensive. (Even though there are refillable ones, I had never seen them sold in Hungary.)
5. Faber-Castell Ecco Pigment. Similarly to the Pilot pens, this is everywhere, it's also a disposable pen. I bought the 0.1 because it was on sale, and I thought I'd try it out. It's a lot less thin than the Copic 0.1, and I might be (I am) partial to the Japanese brands, but so far I like it a lot less than either of my other pens. It should be fine for sketching, and anyway, as I said, it was cheap (normally it's a bit more expensive than the Pilot).

The Rotring Isograph is a classic technical drawing pen, not exactly for light sketching, and it is also tricky to write with them; I use them for basically anything, but still, mainly the architecture stuff (plans, as we are prohibited to hand in anything computer-drawn in the first two years), and proper, finished drawings. The line it draws is always very consistent (if the nib is properly cleaned, which it should be).

The Copic Multiliner also has a very consistent line, and really good quality pigment-based ink. It is fantastic to sketch with them - I usually use them for that, or outlining drawings. Because I use the 0.1 I rarely write with it, but it's also easy to do that, just with preferably a little larger nibs.

The Pilot V5 is a rollerball pen, and so it is incredibly easy to use for writing, and it's okay for sketching as well even though the line comes out a bit uneven at times.

The Pentel EnerGel has some kind of liquid gel ink, which is incredibly easy to draw and write with! These are also rollerball pens. (And they are so cheap, why don't they sell them here!?)

The Faber-Castell Ecco Pigment is, like the Copic Multiliner, a fibre-tip pen, with just a little less consistency, and a much worse ink quality (see below).

The first samples were smudged with (excuse me) my saliva (I'm really sorry) right after colouring, and the second row was smudged with water after completely drying.
The Rotring ink is incredible quality, it smudges a bit first (oh sweet all-nighter memories), but after drying, it is the most waterproof out of the bunch; perfect for outlines. It gives a nice, dark black colour. Be careful when writing with it, because it dries slow! (Especially if you're left handed, I definitely wouldn't recommend them for left-handed people.)
The Copic Multiliner SP has a bit of a brownish undertone, but it is also superb quality. As it can be seen, it is also waterproof (with lots of water it will smudge a bit, but all in all it's good enough). I may be biased, because ultimately, these are my favourite pens of all time, but this is good for anything, you just have to choose the most fitting nib size.
The Pilot ink has a blue undertone, and it's not the best quality, and it's not really waterproof.. It's okay to sketch with and very easy to write with.
The Pentel ink is a whole other story - it dries incredibly fast, maybe the fastest out of the five (the Copic might dry faster, it's hard to tell since my Copic is a 0.1 and my Pentel is a 0.7). Sadly it's not waterproof, but as it is, I'd say it's the best for sketching, especially on a low budget. Definitely good for writing, though it's less flowy than the Pilot. But the biggest pro? The ink is the blackest of blacks I've ever seen (it's obvious even on these crappy photos), it's darker than the Rotring Drawing Ink (it's also a warmer shade) - though I do not have any experience with how much it fades with time (the Rotring is really long-lasting).
I was not overly impressed with the Faber-Castell. After drying it's waterproof (about as much as the Copic, so I guess it performs pretty well), but before it can smudge a lot. Out of the five it has the worst colour:  it's definitely the least dark, it's almost not black but dark grey, with a greenish-brown undertone. The colour of the black ink is a pet peeve of mine - even though most would laugh, because come on, it's black, there are no shades of black - well there are!

//tl;dr - Copic and Rotring ftw!//