HP 7500 Pros and Cons?

[Digital Insight]

Greetings all

HP is trying to push me a 7500 Indigo....

I have never dealt with HP before. Only Xerox.

Any HP 7500 owners / users here that can shed some light on HP?

Good, bad, ugly?

How is the service?

How much up/down time do you have with your 7500?

Is there anything that the 7500 really does poorly?

What is your favorite feature of the 7500?

Thanks in advance.

Greatly appreciated,

Rob

 

[Kunnajar]

Greetings all

HP is trying to push me a 7500 Indigo....

I have never dealt with HP before. Only Xerox.

Any HP 7500 owners / users here that can shed some light on HP?

Good, bad, ugly?

How is the service?

How much up/down time do you have with your 7500?

Is there anything that the 7500 really does poorly?

What is your favorite feature of the 7500?

Thanks in advance.

Greatly appreciated,

Rob

If the 7500 availability in production is the same as 7000 i would consider twice. Here is a study.
http:// SpencerLab Digital Color Laboratory - Welcome /reports/ recent.asp?i051#i051

 

[TheProcessIStheproduct]

Wow, I wonder who commissioned that study, seems kind of bias, all I know is with my Indigo I have not seen a tech in 2 years, all the Xerox guys I know see them once a week...

 

[Kunnajar]

Wow, I wonder who commissioned that study, seems kind of bias, all I know is with my Indigo I have not seen a tech in 2 years, all the Xerox guys I know see them once a week...

I actually talked to a consultant who worked closely with the indigo and he stated the same thing as the results show. He said that printhouses had to buy 2 machines instead of 1 to keep them running properly. The study is no directly about uptime, it has other variables in the study too.

iIn my honest oppinion dont compare the indigo 7000/7500 to smaller presses than igen 4.

 

[MGB_LE]

Greetings all

HP is trying to push me a 7500 Indigo....

I have never dealt with HP before. Only Xerox.

Any HP 7500 owners / users here that can shed some light on HP?

Good, bad, ugly?

How is the service?

How much up/down time do you have with your 7500?

Is there anything that the 7500 really does poorly?

What is your favorite feature of the 7500?

Thanks in advance.

Greatly appreciated,

Rob

We run an iGEN3 and an Indigo 7000 which was upgraded to a 7500. Image quality goes to the Indigo, hands-down. With full coverage images, the Indigo output may need to be UV coated to avoid ink scratching off, which isn't a problem with iGEN. When running, the Indigo is more productive because it can print faster when using black only or only two or three spot inks.
Also, the Indigo takes a different grade of operator; someone who doesn't mind tinkering with the press. The operator has a larger bearing on Indigo press performance than with the iGEN. Of course you also have to consider substrate limitations between the presses. We HAVE to run some applications on the iGEN because they're larger than the 7500's max sheet size of 13x19.

The Inidgo (and I guess the iGEN as well) is happiest when it's running lots of the same application. We continually print different types of product, which means blanket changes, pip changes and other maintenance akin to a traditional offset press, whereas the iGEN can quickly change stock sizes between print runs without required maintenance.

I hope this helps.

 

[Digital Insight]

Thanks for the great feedback so far everyone - much appreciated!

Question: On your HP 7000 /7500 /7600 what kind of "click" charge are you getting on a 4 color, full size sheet?

.04? lower?

Thx much

 

[Kunnajar]

We run an iGEN3 and an Indigo 7000 which was upgraded to a 7500. Image quality goes to the Indigo, hands-down. With full coverage images, the Indigo output may need to be UV coated to avoid ink scratching off, which isn't a problem with iGEN. When running, the Indigo is more productive because it can print faster when using black only or only two or three spot inks.
Also, the Indigo takes a different grade of operator; someone who doesn't mind tinkering with the press. The operator has a larger bearing on Indigo press performance than with the iGEN. Of course you also have to consider substrate limitations between the presses. We HAVE to run some applications on the iGEN because they're larger than the 7500's max sheet size of 13x19.

The Inidgo (and I guess the iGEN as well) is happiest when it's running lots of the same application. We continually print different types of product, which means blanket changes, pip changes and other maintenance akin to a traditional offset press, whereas the iGEN can quickly change stock sizes between print runs without required maintenance.

I hope this helps.

You are absolutely right. Spencerlab has also image quality research (funded by kodak) where indigo had better quality than the igen.

The new igen 4 150 will beat the older igen 4s quality with 2400 dpi printing.

 

[Digital Insight]

Kunnajar - you are obviously a Xerox Shill or you work for Xerox.

Pretty easy to see that by your "rush to defend" Xerox at every turn.

I just finished a road trip where I took MY files and printed them on several different digital presses.

Among them were the IGEN 4, the Xerox ColorPress 800 (actually made by Fuji - not Xerox) and the HP Indigo 5500 and 7500

HANDS DOWN the IGen 4 was the WORST of the bunch.

It was not even close......

Rob

 

[Kunnajar]

Kunnajar - you are obviously a Xerox Shill or you work for Xerox.

Pretty easy to see that by your "rush to defend" Xerox at every turn.

I just finished a road trip where I took MY files and printed them on several different digital presses.

Among them were the IGEN 4, the Xerox ColorPress 800 (actually made by Fuji - not Xerox) and the HP Indigo 5500 and 7500

HANDS DOWN the IGen 4 was the WORST of the bunch.

It was not even close......

Rob

Look my post above. I am just stating facts. And yes i am a reseller of production machines. My customers are very happy with us and if they have problems we solve them.

 

[Forty2]

I actually talked to a consultant who worked closely with the indigo and he stated the same thing as the results show. He said that printhouses had to buy 2 machines instead of 1 to keep them running properly.

This was true in 1995 or whenever Indigo first launched. Things have changed a bit since then. Your consultant needs to find another line of work if he's that out of touch.

 

[Craig]

Rob,
What is HP telling you about the 7500 compared to the xerox 800/1000? It seems like the 7500 would be more in line with the iGen as far a volume goes. How does the base cost of the 7500 compare to the 800/1000?

 

[Kunnajar]

This was true in 1995 or whenever Indigo first launched. Things have changed a bit since then. Your consultant needs to find another line of work if he's that out of touch.

As i said i dont know about the 7500 because i havent seen any studies regarding it. But the study about Igen and indigos availability was done 19th of October 2011 not 1995...

I am not saying that indigo isnt a good machine, i have seen it in production and i think it is a good machine with its flaws (like others too).

And the consultant works with HP, konica, canon and ricoh also (as we speak).

 

[scorpionman]

i run an indigo 7000.It Runs pretty good,but will usually go down atleast 1 or 2 days a month.The quality is 100%
better than igen,and in alot of my work better than offset.There are some downsides to the hp.It is a high maintenance machine.I do have maintain it every day.The ink does rub off and for quality products you should put a uv coating to protect it.

 

[Digital Insight]

Thanks for the comments Scorpion....

Much appreciate

Rob

 

[MGB_LE]

Just about a year later I return to this thread, and my opinion on the Indigo has soured. I can certainly empathize with the person who stated that a buyter should install TWO Indigos to ensure that one stays running. We are experiencing both recurring and new problems with our press continually now. We've had specialists in from around the nation and Israel. They can get it runing great again,l but shortly after they're gone, other issues crop up. It's hell on production, and thankfully the iGEN across the room is there for backup. We have a trained operator, but most of these issues are stumping the specialists as well or require a technician to troubleshoot and resolve. It's cool to have a Ferrari, but not really if you can only get it started 15 days out of the month.