b&w contacts

[Rob_Ganzeveld]

Anyone using B&W laser printers to print contact sheets at events. Right now we have monitors for previewing and are printing out color contacts on canon inkjets and printing to kodak dye subs and fuji picto 4000. I am looking at color laser printers but was wondering if a monochrome or B&W laser would do. I am trying to cut costs of ink from the inkjets. Do you think that B&W will hurt sales- we use contacts for people to quickly browse then show them the images on monitors. With a B&W laser we could print 8 or 12 up on a sheet rather than the 20 we print now and save hundreds of dollars a year. I am spending about$600/700 per month on ink and paper now (ouch).

Rob

[DougAxford]

Rob,

We picked-up an Okidata C5100 color laser (actually LED, not laser) for printing all of our color price lists and brochures. It replaced a Canon CLC w/rip. The quality is almost as good as the Canon and much faster. I looked at Xerox, HP, etc. and the Oki was the best deal by far. The Oki was under $900. cdn and the Canon was over $30,000 new. The Oki spits out 11 pages color/minute, but less if you print 1 of a kind. I find the color good enough for quick proofs and our cost has been under .14/page cdn. A typical page from PS will render in 10 to 15 seconds and it's out in another 10. It's not good enough for final prints - but should be OK for sports proofs. Rarely jams and will handle heavy paper, envelopes & labels. If you want a quick sample, email me
There are some 11x17 factory refurbs on ebay for under $2,000. that do 33 pages/minute.

DougA

[Rob_Ganzeveld]

Thanks Doug, I will definatly look into it. Sounds like what I am after.

Take Care
Rob