Canon C1+ alternative?

We currently have a irc3220 and looking for a replacement. One we're looking at is the C1+ but we are trying to see if there's any comparable units from KonicaMinolta/OCE/Xerox.

I would say I'm not willing to spend more than the C1+ ($50k range?) so are there anything else out there that's comparable? I know there's the HP Indigo but that's too expensive I believe. Konica seems to have the BizHubs but I'm not sure of the quality compared to the Canon.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

We ran 1.5 million 11x17s on a pair of 3220s (actually one irc 3220 and one irc 3200.) Then this winter we got a xerox docucolor 242. With bustled RIP, air assist oversize high capacity feeder, and finisher it came to a little over $40k but the click charge is about half of what we are paying on the IRCs. We considered a C1, but I like the lower click of the xerox and the fact that I can run 40 ppm on 20 to 32 lb stock in color. I like the docucolor so much that I'm running 90% of our work on it despite trying to run some on the canons which we still have under lease and contract (which I believe it's good to keep printing some so they're not totally idle, but it's hard as the xerox is so much faster for me - 2 minutes from cold to first print, and a real pleasure for me to use to print both one-off jobs and runs of 1000 to 1200 usually) The C1+ has a slight quality edge - slightly better finish especially on uncoated where it's more matte than the docucolor. But the speed and price with what I consider still very good quality sold me on the xerox. I enjoy being able to print gloss on kromekote and gloss stocks with the docucolor and the quality on both gloss and matte is good to my eye. The black and white quality is also really nice from the xerox - a real pleasure after the 3220 which was always weak on bw prints and grayscale solids. So far I'm really happy with my decision after 192,000 prints to date. We'll see how it goes as we get more prints on it, but I'd definitely consider it, request some samples and pricing and see how it looks and adds up for you in comparison.

 

Thanks that's very useful information! We print mostly manuals and so it's not heavily graphics intensive so if your cost per click is half of what the 3220s are I'm definitely interested! I'll have to call my local rep for some info on that Xerox!

 

Hi ghostwriter,

I have been using the C1+ for a few months which the printout is pretty impressive.

Although the price of the machine is on the high side but the technology of the spot vanish is one and only in the market. Most of my project needs to do vanish which UV coat is also expensive.

Personally, if i'm looking for an upgrade i will choose a five color machine rather than still a four color which can cater for my future needs.

 

I definitely envy you for having the cool option. But with the click quotes I got last year for a Docucolor and C1+, if I had chosen the C1+ instead I would have needed the 5th gloss unit to generate an additional $2900 in profit to pay the added click cost to date since December, and I don't have the jobs to do that here based on spot gloss. I was hoping you could use the 5th gloss unit to lay down a flood coating of gloss for an ultra-gloss look with even less gloss deviation at viewing angles for photographs on coated stocks, but I believe that's not really ideal as I've been told the gloss is a lower gloss than a kromekote surface, for example, and is really for clear spot design elements more than flood coating -- is that correct?

It's still a very cool option, but I'd have to have the spot-clear design customers lined up to cover at least 2/3 the additional click charge to make it work for me instead of me working for it...