C500 stop gap?

[Bikerbob]

For those that responded.

Thanks

I have considered all opinions.

As this is a month to month rental with a bit higher click, I think this stop gap makes sense for us. It will do the work we do now, so I can make a better profit, show how we can handle and do this right in house, and this will help the team see the wisdom of getting into a better machine.

I will follow up with a how it went in a month or two.

Soon my questions will be where to go.. KM 6000/7000 Ricoh 720 - does Cannon do anything good right now?

by the way .. does anyone do colour envelopes on their machines? I was told just use a separate fuser unit, so that any marks dont pass to regular work, and you can get some really good fast envelopes out of a machine.

James

[acacia print]

We have just gone from being a small Offset printer outsourcing our digital to having a Konica C500 in house. It has the external Fiery and although it is not the best machine in the world it did a better job than I had expected and I am pleased I took it on. seeing as the amount of digital I sent out was taking up a lot of time in emailing files and then going to collect the job and then taking out another 1 or 2 sheets because there was a stuff up..... then I am very pleased to have a machine in house. It has helped us sell the idea that we are able to do digital and helped grow our market (slowly) worst comes to worst for us if the C500 wont do the job good enough we still have the option of sending it out which is no worse than what we had before the machine arrived. we now do almost all our business cards on it and a few booklets etc. haven’t had it long but glad we do.

[Bikerbob]

That is exactly the way I am looking at it!!

Having a hard sell with this traditional litho company.. I agree that sometimes lots of originals, and new operator, it would have been cheaper to send it out. But in the long term.. its the CONTROL of the job.. if I need to match a colour I can.

DO you use any of the upper end software for the Fiery? or just the command workstation.

Can anyone answer - IF I get the colour software with the specraphotometer, can I move this software and the meter to another machine if we upgrade?

James

[GusG]

Can anyone answer - IF I get the colour software with the specraphotometer, can I move this software and the meter to another machine if we upgrade?

I think all Fierys, internal and external, can use a spectrophotometer/densitometer, if your spectrophotometer/densitometer is compatible with a new Fiery then you can just connect it there.

I got an X-Rite DTP32 with my DC2060 and I've used that on Fiery X12s and on a DC 3535 with the built in Fiery, I just connect the X-Rite to whatever computer I'm running CWS on.

[JayDA]

You can use the ES-1000 or whatever device you get with any external Fiery, however I am not sure about the internal ones. When I had my C500s with the internal Fierys, I was never able to make them work. But then again, those were the Ikon days, and support was a little lacking....so it could have just been me.

[acacia print]

That is exactly the way I am looking at it!!

Having a hard sell with this traditional litho company.. I agree that sometimes lots of originals, and new operator, it would have been cheaper to send it out. But in the long term.. its the CONTROL of the job.. if I need to match a colour I can.

DO you use any of the upper end software for the Fiery? or just the command workstation.

Can anyone answer - IF I get the colour software with the specraphotometer, can I move this software and the meter to another machine if we upgrade?

James

We have just the "Command Workstation 5" I have not had a copier before and we are only just getting our inhouse graphic design propperly running. So we are on a learning curve. But it is well worth it, as like you say we now have the control we need to keep things moving and it also shows the client that we are a "propper" print company now. Even just the machine sitting there verses a blank space makes us look better than what we did. I am not sure if better software will help..? Probably it might, but I dont see a big need for it for us right now. I am now working to grow our volume so that we will be able to justify the next model up like yourselves. Then we should be humming. I did some work on it last night and went home smiling so that must tell you something.

[Bikerbob]

Well its in,

I would have prefered the external Fiery so that I could learn more of the professional software while we are still growing with this end, and not have to worry about it in the middle of a job.. but fine.

Colour is good, we run hvy stock mostly so we are keeping it as max 13" width so that we dont mark the fuser..

and I agree with the comment that just having it there, as an option is better. If I need BETTER I can still send it out, and when volumes dictate we are not locked into this so we can move to something bigger and better, and maybe keep this as a p4p machine.

Thanks for input people - have there ever been patches, or hacks that allow you to run more of the software on an internal that you normally only can on the exteral? or is it a pure hardware thing?

Also if I found an external on ebay for this.. can you get it reserialized for another machine without spending a forturne?

James

[GusG]

Also if I found an external on ebay for this.. can you get it reserialized for another machine without spending a forturne?James

I don't think you need to do anything to the machine to put on an external RIP as long as it comes with the right cables, just hook it up, calibrate and off you go.

On my Xerox DC 3535 I was running a CREO Spire external RIP which developed a problem, I merely connected the internal RIP from an idle 3535 I have standing using some cables from a Fiery X12 RIP (only because they were longer and so I didn't need to unscrew the internal Fiery from the machine it's on as this was a purely temporary solution) and I was back up and running in minutes with no other adjustments (except a calibration, of course).

[Cagey Veteran]

As far as swapping to an external Fiery it depends on which 'internal' Fiery you have now. Is it the true internal Fiery which is actually embedded inside the machine or the Fiery we refer to as the "Clingon" which hangs off the back of the machine. If it's embedded it will need to be disabled mechanically before you can connect anything else.
Also, there are no software upgrades or hacks for an internal RIP because it was designed for business color. Any addons are normally enabled on external RIPs with one-time use dongles and cannot be transferred to other devices.