digi press for photobooks - KM65hc Pro v Canon ImageRunner 9060 v Xerox 700

[tdmlt]

Hi Everyone,

We're setting up a new business that will offer on demand personalised printed products such as photobooks, calendars, cards etc.

We're been doing alot of research into small scale digital print presses and need some guidance into which print press to purchase. We're considering the KM65hc Pro, canon image runner 9060 pro and xerox 700 but should anyone have any other suggestions please put them forward.

We are part of a full service marketing agency and hence have a team of graphic designers designing various background templates to differnetiate our offering from the competition.
We need to be able to print smoooth gradiations and solid colours without banding (both serious issues on some samples we got printed on a Xerox Docucolour 260).

We also need to be able to duplex print heavier stock for greeting cards and calendars.

If anyone is in this business or get any experience with these machines I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks,
Theo

 

[elfidito]

had you checked the MGI DP20?
I think it does all for photobooks. They had a video on their web site.

 

[geoman]

tdmlt,

Just for a moment, expand the possibilities and take a look at the Xerox 800/1000. I've seen output from them. WOW!

(Budget might bring you back to reality, but worth knowing what future photobook manufacturers/publishers will be using)

 

[tdmlt]

Hi,

We are considering the MGI presses, however there is no agent in our country and as would be concerned with that unless we find an agent to service the machines we would have no solution in place for downtime & maintenance.

The Xerox machine is out of our budget and although it would be nice it is just not feasible for our volumes.

Anyone got anyfeedback on the 3 print presses I outlined?

Thanks,
Theo

 

[geoman]

What country are you in tdmlt?

 

[tdmlt]

Thanks for all the votes in the poll. Has anybody get any feedback/ experience of using any of these presses for the production of photobooks?

Thanks,
Theo

 

[geoman]

tdmlt

I publish photobooks which get outsourced for production to two different suppliers who are both skilled at book finishing. One is running a KM6501 and the other a Xerox 700. Because the books from each supplier serves a different clientelle, I'm not concerened about the variations of the two printers.

But, because I have a choice when it comes to friends' and relatives' photo books, I route production of those to the 700.

This is about as clear as I can be with regard to putting a line in the sand.

Hope it somehow helps.

(You never answered my question; where are you located?)

 

[aferrer]

Thanks for all the votes in the poll. Has anybody get any feedback/ experience of using any of these presses for the production of photobooks?

Thanks,
Theo

Hi Theo,

for outstanding Colour Quality in Photobooks give the Canon imagePRESS C1+ a try and if you can afford it go for a Production imagePRESS.

What type of distributor/dealer does Canon have in Malta?

Maybe you can get support from Canon Italy.

 

[tdmlt]

Hi aferrer,

We are gettting samples printed on a C1+ and like the fact that it can print clear (UV) varnish, however we are concerned about the production speed and the weight of paper it can handle.

We'll compare the differences in print to the Imagerunner but feel that the production imagepress is out of our budget, as the C1 is pretty close to our limit.

Thanks,
Theo

 

[bompi]

Even my company wants to develop the market for photo books, when we have two Xerox DC250 that we use for printing business we are considering the purchase of a Xerox 700 or KM 65hc for photo book, we will assess which of the two for IPEX . The Canon imageRUNNER we saw and did not refute an acceptable print quality for this work.
We have, however, the software problem, we have seen to DigiLabs and Taopix, but both are very expensive especially TaoPIx, what software you used or have any other solution to suggest?

 

[geoman]

The clear on the Canon is just a clear toner (same as on the Nexpress and Color 1000.
Not a varnish, not a UV; none of that stuff.

 

[bompi]

Geoman which uses software for the creation of the Photo Books?

 

[tdmlt]

Still deciding on which photobook software to use. Anything that is good is expensive and they all want somekind of % of turnover or fee per job or per user which make them even more expensive. The ones that don't can't even send me demo software that works

re: the clear toner, I know it is not exaclty varnish but it is meant to be comparible or so I've heard (still waiting for print samples to be able to judge for myself).

 

[X33]

Anything that is good is expensive and they all want somekind of % of turnover or fee per job or per user which make them even more expensive. The ones that don't can't even send me demo software that works

you get what you pay for.

how much is expensive for you?

did you check out DigiLabs? Also, FastBind has some sw I think. Your Xerox rep can engage both partners and provide you an end-to-end solution.

 

[tdmlt]

Digilabs have changed their business model and now operate the model we like least. They require you to pay fees per user, which you must purchase in blocks in advance, and they do not distinguish between what users purchase so if we have alot of our customers purchasing a greeting card, the digi labs user fee would eat up the majority of our profit.

Fastbind are indeed developing a solution but it is still quote far from ready.

Both of these pieces of software also lack alot of features and are too inflexible for our liking

Our xerox rep claims to have done something to the DC260 to make it print properly but I am yet to see it and probably would not be comfortable purchashing this press. I'm looking forward to seeing the 700 but it may be out of our budget.

 

[tdmlt]

Would anyone know if any new digital machines are being launched at IPEX which are in the same price band?

 

[kathymc]

I think that the docucolour 260 you sampled was not a true representation of their usual printing quality.

After putting 700,000 prints through mine, I have only once had a banding issue. The Canon C1 that we also had, broke down repeatedly, and did have bad banding and spot issues. We had techs coming up to three times a week.

I would never touch another canon without much assurance that they had addressed the massive issues the C1 had.