Ricoh C720 vs. Bizhub Pro C5501

[purple23]

If anyone out there has advice for me, I would greatly appreciate.
I have a business printing magazines for homeowner associations and have decided to lease equipment to do my own printing to get better control and save money. I am also planning to print postcards, stationery, business cards, etc. for my husband's business.
I have quotes for a Bizhub C5501 and Ricoh C720. The click charges are very close but the Bizhub monthly payment is much lower.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

[pdan]

I can't speak for the Ricoh bur our Bizhub 5500 does beautiful work on anything I throw at it. The front to back registration is there, whether text weight or heavy cover, but, I have better service and support from others in my area who purchased through a different vendor. Tomorrow I'll be printing a piece brokered to me from a shop the has a Canon, not sure what model, due to their machine not being able to achieve the quality desired for the piece.

As important to the final purchase decision as the machine capabilities is the included bundle; Is a calibration hardware and software set included with the machine? Is it driven be a RIP or not?
I just loaned out calibration tools to some peers last month...they had been running a machine for a year without calibration tools...that's a guaranteed way to never achieve the same color on an important job twice.

 

[X33]

I have quotes for a Bizhub C5501 and Ricoh C720. The click charges are very close but the Bizhub monthly payment is much lower.

Try to get quotes on equipment in the same range (pages per minute). That way you can compare equipment with similar features.

For instance, the Xerox 550 is comparable to the Bizhub C5501, but the Xerox 700 is more aligned to the Ricoh C720.