Pros
Canon design and reputation for low maintenence, longevity.
Cons
Not a perfect interface with Microsoft Office software and the Canon print drivers.
The Bottom Line
Canon is more expensive than others because they are well-made and last longer. Unit has few bugs for being new design.
Full Review
Our small non-profit office prints a monthly newsletter (500 copies) and another pamphlet (250 copies/month) which we had previously sent to a print shop. Both needed to be folded, one also "saddle-stitch" stapled. We decided that for the price of the printing, we should be able to pay for a multi-function machine with a finisher attached that can fold and staple our booklets.
We compared Ricoh, Konica-Minolta and Canon. We were offered a slightly used Canon Image Runner 4570 (20,000 previous copies) for the same price as a new Ricoh that did 35 copies per minute (the IR4570 does 45 cpm). We chose Canon because they have a reputation for endurance -- a five-year lease was necessary, so we wanted a machine that might still function well at five years. Canon has this reputation.
AFTER we signed the lease, a tech from our vendor (Loffler in MN) mentioned that the IR4570 is a new design, and there might be bugs, but that Canon would replace components or software as needed. We have done 60,000 copies in five months, and we have not needed anything major.
In the first month, we found a rubber roller in one of the paper trays, and we were having a lot of paper jams. This was corrected and it's been good ever sense, very few jams, less than one per week, even making booklets and using card stock (thick paper) for the booklet cover.
One issue with booklet finishers is this: There is no universal standard for "saddle stitch" staples. Our finisher uses Canon's D2 staple cartridge. These cost $35 to $50 for three cartridges, a total of 15,000 staples. This is not a huge cost for us, but it is greater than we anticipated.
Canon is a heavier machine than, for example, Konica-Minolta: This means it is a more solid construction. This makes it harder to break.
This machine copies, prints from your pc, scans, and can also be set up to send faxes. It has its own internal hard-drive, so you can store documents on the machine and print from the copier, rather than your pc.
The important factor for the machine lasting over the period of the lease is how many pages per month, year, etc. you are printing. We are not printing that many per month, compared to what the intended capacity of the machine, so it should last through our five-year lease. The cpm rating (copies per minute) gives you some idea of the volume the machine is intended to handle. A very small office can get by easily on 25 to 35 cpm. Our service contract gives us up to 13,000 page sides per month -- we could use a 35 cpm or 45 cpm, and we went with 45 cpm to improve the chances that we wouldn't need a new machine before this one was paid off.
There are still some bugs to work out in interface btw IR4570 print drivers and Microsoft Office products; for example, we cannot print an entire Excel workbook with one staple. We have to print out each workbook, the put them through as photocopies, in order to get the whole thing stapled as one packet.
In over 4000 booklets, the finisher has jammed only once or twice. (The finisher is an optional component - several different ones are available for the IR4570.)
Recommended:
Yes
Purchase Price (if leased, monthly payment): 390/month
Machine age (Months in use): Five months
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