Owners of the first two Canon C700/800 digital production printers say they can already see the difference in this new generation of printers right after installation.

Creffield Digital director Frank Veltman says the printer is exceeding expectations so much in its first month of operation that his very fussy print operator has not complained.

“We have only had one service call in a month, which for the first installed machine is great. I’m surprised how reliable it’s been for a new generation model,” he says.

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Veltman says the quality is far better than the previous generation of production printers to the point where clients can see the difference at a glance.

He says the C800 is opening up new markets for the 126-year-old Geelong business with marketing and small corporate clients coming on board for short runs of brochures, flyers and other collateral.

Veltman says Creffield has grown from about 30,000 A3 impressions a month to about 50,000 today, and he expects the new printer to get it to 70,000 in the near future.

“We focus on fast, short runs on demand, so our biggest issue was file processing time. It is much faster on the machine and that lets us do many different jobs easily, and have time to make sure the quality is right,” he says.

“The black and white market is declining but with printers like these we are showing customers that cutsheet machines produce great quality colour in A3 or A4.

“It makes us a one-stop-shop where there is no panic for the client, they know they will get last-minute jobs done when they need them.”

The first installation in NSW, and the first of the C700 version, was installed at Sydney digital printer Gold Leaf Framing this week

Owner Theo Stamatopoulos says the difference in quality from test runs compared to his old Océ CS 650 is ‘night and day’, without any of the colour consistency and registration issues that were frustrating him before.

Stamatopoulos says the new generation of production printers – including the C700/800, Fuji Xerox Versant 2100 and Konica Minolta C1100 – came out at the right time when he was looking to upgrade and he was able to take his pick.

He says he chose the C700 over the C1100 because it is more reliable, has a better paper feed system and had great support, and these features were more important than the C1100’s bigger print area.

“The quality on this new generation of printers is not quite at offset level be we are getting close,” he says.

“The colour consistency, accuracy and evenness is far better and also better finishing capability.

“As one of the first machines it still has a few things to calibrate and costs a bit more, but I’d rather get in early in new technology and be faster to market than my competitors, so I can draw in more speciality work from elsewhere.”

Stamatopoulos expects this to start, as many of his clients are quality-conscious and 30-40 per cent of his work comes from print brokers.

“I’m much more interested in quality than speed and this machine gives me total confidence in the work, I know I can do whatever I want with it,” he says.

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Gold Leaf started as a photo framing business 20 years ago and moved into photo printing at the request of clients, gradually expanding into other types of digital print focusing on bespoke solutions to fit client needs.

The company offers a range of options for photo printing. Expensive, high quality prints or photobooks will still be produced by his Epson 9900 inkjet printer, but now good quality versions can just be handled by the C700.

About 20 per cent of Stamatopoulos’ business still comes from photo-related jobs, but the rest now includes newsletters, flyers, DL, point-of-sale, business cards, banners, menus and wedding invitations.

He says the new printer opens the door to new markets and allows for experimentation with extra product options. He is also launching a new web-to-print portal in the next two months.

Stamatopoulos also has numerous trade clients in the Sutherland Shire area who rely on the quality of his work.

“When clients know you have good quality they come to you from word of mouth. Doing good work with good service builds goodwill and helps us grow,” he says.

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