Help with digital equipment decision

[ChuckH]

I would give a look at the Ricoh Pro C550 and 700EX. The are a pretty nice machine.

Look seriously at the C900 - many RICOH locations are seeling demo units to replace with the Scanner/Copier version. C550 and C700's don't have the tightness in F2B registration for most shops. With single click 13x19 capability you need that registration. Color consistency on C550/C700 may be suspect but the C900's productivity is good for mid duty color printer.
Full Disclosure - I'm Ricoh employee

[ridety]

Have put 150,000ish clicks on my new Xerox 700 in the past couple of months I've had it. Absolutely love it. First service call was today. Can count the paper jams in that time frame using only fingers- no toes. Color is exceptional. We run about 80% gloss 80# cover. Most of those clicks were on preprinted (offset) shells. (Tech today basically cleaned it up and put new tires in it).

If I had any complaint at all, it would be that I wish there were a single button to push to see color/black clicks. (takes two or three clicks through menu).

But that's bout it. Other than that, it's a sweet machine. (pay bout 1100/month on 5 year $1 buyout lease) ($.049/color) ($.01/black/white); (have integrated fiery, one drawer hi-cap, and light production finisher)

[panamajack]

Have put 150,000ish clicks on my new Xerox 700 in the past couple of months I've had it. Absolutely love it. First service call was today. Can count the paper jams in that time frame using only fingers- no toes. Color is exceptional. We run about 80% gloss 80# cover. Most of those clicks were on preprinted (offset) shells. (Tech today basically cleaned it up and put new tires in it).

If I had any complaint at all, it would be that I wish there were a single button to push to see color/black clicks. (takes two or three clicks through menu).

But that's bout it. Other than that, it's a sweet machine. (pay bout 1100/month on 5 year $1 buyout lease) ($.049/color) ($.01/black/white); (have integrated fiery, one drawer hi-cap, and light production finisher)

That’s great news. There’s been some message traffic discussing whether or not the 700 can produce photo quality. With your first hand experience with the 700 I would enjoy hearing your opinion.

[ridety]

I've had no issues at all with quality of print... but to be fair, my customer base is mom and pops who aren't all that sensitive in terms of color and photo quality.

Plus, I've been running a couple of canon 3220's (office machines) for the last several years... so the 700 is very much ahead of those...

In short, we love the quality of the output!

[Craig]

ridety,
I hope you kept at least 1 of those 3220's! If they are like my 3200 they just keep running and running no matter what you shove through them. The print quality is a few years behind but they print on anything.

[whitecollarskater]

This was a big reason we went with the 700. The picture quality and color control we get from the 700 is nothing like anything we ever had on a demo. We had every vendor print some of our company files and bring them to us. The BLACKS on the Xerox were hands down the best we had seen. Without looking through a loop you could not tell where there were any lines in a sunset photo where on others you could see where they changed colors. As for ease of use and paper jams....ZERO complaints from our copy center employees. They love the fact they can change the drum on their own without any down time. That is something that Konica or Ricoh could not promise. Again, the Xerox costs us more per month but we don't have to worry about being down for four hours waiting for the Konica or Ricoh tech to show up to replace a drum. The difference from the 6501 and the 700 that we ended up getting was about $550.00 more per month. We make that cost up in less downtime and more productivity. We can now duplex 220 in the drawers and not have to flip it like we did on our old Konica 6500's.

[UberTech]

This was a big reason we went with the 700. The picture quality and color control we get from the 700 is nothing like anything we ever had on a demo. We had every vendor print some of our company files and bring them to us. The BLACKS on the Xerox were hands down the best we had seen. Without looking through a loop you could not tell where there were any lines in a sunset photo where on others you could see where they changed colors. As for ease of use and paper jams....ZERO complaints from our copy center employees. They love the fact they can change the drum on their own without any down time. That is something that Konica or Ricoh could not promise. Again, the Xerox costs us more per month but we don't have to worry about being down for four hours waiting for the Konica or Ricoh tech to show up to replace a drum. The difference from the 6501 and the 700 that we ended up getting was about $550.00 more per month. We make that cost up in less downtime and more productivity. We can now duplex 220 in the drawers and not have to flip it like we did on our old Konica 6500's.

Why would you need to work and turn 220gsm?

[Joe Struntz]

whitecollarskater: What rip are you running? Photo quality on the Xerox 700 is a main selling point for our decision vs the Konica 6501. Thanks

[whitecollarskater]

We print a lot of two sided marketing materials for insurance companies that are needed to be printed on 10 point 80lb cover and when we did the tests on the KM and the Xerox, the Xerox ran it through the drawers better than anything we saw. We liked the color quality on the KM, but the Xerox was a bit better on some of our color mathcing and fill. We have the external Fiery with the graphic arts package.

[UberTech]

We print a lot of two sided marketing materials for insurance companies that are needed to be printed on 10 point 80lb cover and when we did the tests on the KM and the Xerox, the Xerox ran it through the drawers better than anything we saw. We liked the color quality on the KM, but the Xerox was a bit better on some of our color mathcing and fill. We have the external Fiery with the graphic arts package.

Why would you need to work and turn 220gsm?