Re: fuji celix 8000 imagesetter healp wanted
If someone would have asked this question 8-10 years ago, I could've said 'go for it', but today it's not a good choice because:
1. it's a blue argon laser machine, you must be completely sure that argon laser film is available to you at all times;
2. This machine needs an experienced service engineer every week or so. This is a very fussy imagesetter, a lot of automation inside and servos and pulleys and vacuum solenoids etc., so many things to go wrong I've had a hard time servicing these machines.
3. If you still want to purchase a C8000 you'd better have a second similar machine available for parts because spares are NO LONGER available, Fuji has discontinued support since 1999 or so. Especially PCBs are hard to get, there are still a few in the UK who keep in stock some parts but at a huge price, e.g. expect to pay up to X000 euros for one of the main system boards. And they do fail.
4. One of the boards inside (the ASDM) has a custom-formatted obsolete 50-pin 200 MB SCSI harddisk inside impossible to replace these days, it's used to bufer the incoming files from the RIP. It's a specific fujitsu drive that was hard to find back in 1995...
5. The C8000 requires either a harlequin Fuji RIP - quite old, or a CelebraNT machine with differential scsi. In both cases you'll get Postscript level 2 capability, or first implementations of PS-L.3 at most. No chance to get an up-to-date RIP.
The quality it gives on film is very good, the optics base is fabulous, better than any avantra. Its brother Celix-4000 used to be the best in class, very good exposure quality. But the rather slow 8000 is difficult to support in field.
Hope it helps.
