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It's hard to imagine that a battle can rage over a tiny plastic device that holds a few drops of ink, but such is the nature of online conversation today. And such is the turf war over the merits and lacks of the Pilot CON-40 Converter. Pilot is a Japanese company that makes highly respected, top-quality pens and pencils. Their Pilot and Namiki fountain pens are regarded as some of the best available. Ink cartridges and converters for Pilot fountain pens are—sadly—proprietary, which means you can't use other brands' cartridges and converters in your Pilot. However, with a converter, you are not limited to inks made by Pilot, so you can fill the converter with inks from any brand. Pilot make four converters: * CON-20 - Very small, thin, squeeze-sac converter you press and release to suck in ink * CON-50 - Small, with a screw-piston to suck in ink * CON-70 - Large, with a button-filling system to suck in ink * CON-40 - Intended replacement for the CON-50, and which is slightly thinner, meaning it should work in all Pilot fountain pens While the CON-20 fits in just about every Pilot fountain pen, the CON-50 and the CON-70 do not. For instance, the CON-50 is slightly too wide for use in the Pilot Cavalier, in which the CON-40 fits perfectly. The pros and cons of the new screw-piston CON-40: PROS + Works both in pens that would take the CON-50 and those that could previously take only the CON-20 + Contains metal bearings that help agitate ink, especially useful for the increasingly popular shimmer inks that contain metallic particles + Beats the CON-20 for convenience and performance, since you can clearly see the ink level in the CON-40, and it fills more easily and assuredly CONS - Rattles, caused by the agitator bearings, which annoys some users - Holds a fraction less ink at capacity than the CON-50 - Fills less full (some have reported) than the CON-50 For users who prefer Pilot's slimmest pens, the CON-40 is a big improvement over the CON-20, which I found annoying to use. I'm glad Pilot decided to make the CON-40; so for me, there's little not to like about this newest converter. That said, some fans of the CON-50 feel the CON-40 is a big step backward. In other words, it's all in your perspective based on which Pilot fountain pens you prefer.