Wow, this seems to be the only bad report on the C8000. There sure are a lot of other bad ones on their competitors, especially the Ricoh 901.
When looking at the C8000 the only real machine that fits in that space with them is the Xerox 800.
The Ricoh 901 comes to an absolute creep when doing any mixed media. I have literally seen jobs take over three minutes on a 901 that took under 20 seconds on a C8000. That single fuser on the 901 kills it. It takes forever to switch media, not to mention i hear they have color consistency issues.
It is very important on a C8000 to realize their paper catalog is imperative. You do not want to run that machine with generic paper descriptions, you need to catalog your paper.
Another bright spot for the C8000 is that Konica Minolta manufactures their own finishing and Ricoh and most other manufacturers do not. This means when a VDP job jams you can reclaim on the proper record due to it having true bi directional communication pas the engine. When other manufacturers outsource their finishers to other companies they slow down considerably from engine speed and they also lose communication past the engine. Big problem!
The C8000 also has two densitometers on the inside so they are checking density both pre and post fusing while most others are just doing this once if at all. I also like the 350gsm single sided and the 300gsm duplexed. If you catalog your papers and listen to your trainers they will typically give you a sequence to do these actions, that order sequence is important. If you follow it you will get good consistent registration as well.
I know the C8000 also has a larger color gammut than most engines out there so you can hit those difficult colors a little more easy. I know I have been provided many positive and glowing references on the C8000 and they all seem very happy. You can't make everyone happy, but the majority of C8000 owners I talk to seem to love it.
It's a shame Ricoh directed me to this site and particular blog as a selling tactic against Konica Minolta. There seem to be compliments and complaints on every machine, but if you line the spec's and facts up the KM seems to be stronger.
200 page booklet, 80 page on 901
300 page perfect binder on KM
Dual fuser versus one fuser that winds up and down in temperature for mixed media. exponentially faster on the KM.
The folder on the KM is brilliant, 6 different types of folds, some even nested.
Just my opinion, but the C8000 is gold. The only other machinein its class is the Xerox 800 if you got the money.
