Canon Imageprograf IPF700 plotter any good

[jhollenbach]

We have an HP1050 plotter that either needs serious maintenance or replacement. In the case of replacement, we're thinking of either the HP 4000 or the Canon Imageprograf IPF700. Does anyone have a Canon plotter or simply an opinion on which plotter is more worth it? (Canon is about $4500 // HP 4000 is about $9000).
Thanks!
Jack

[Anonymous]

I'm a dealer of both the HP 4000 and the Canon IPF 700. For the price, the Canon is a very impressive unit. I've been quite pleased with it. If you've been ok with the 1050, the IPF 700 should serve you well.

[Anonymous]

We just upgraded from an HP450C to the iPF700 (big jump) and are very impressed after the first few days. The speed is great, photo quality is great. Printer drivers are very good.

Some things are new to us, like roll feed paper (we have always used single sheets). So there is a little learning curve. But we love some features like the TCP/IP connection.

Nicest feature we have found is the "Free Layout" part of the printer driver. This allows us to first print a CAD job, then print photos, Word docs, whatever. The layout software then allows you to overlay the different documents. Essentially, we can now overlay an aerial photo or map locus onto the diagram without worrying about the 256-color limitation of CAD. Only drawback so far is that a thin border is placed around overlaid objects, but we can certainly live with this for the added feature set.

We were able to pick one up for $3000 after a $1000 instant rebate. Considering that the $3000 was what we paid for the 450C, we are very happy with what we got. Lucky us.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to follow up with them.

John

[cramail]

John,

Our company is seriously thinking of buying iPF600 (similar to your iPF700). Do you have any more thoughts about your printer after several weeks of use?
Do you use the photoPRINT RIP software and are you happy with that? We may need to use it for a non-AutoCAD application.

Thanks,
Nick

[Anonymous]

Nick,

Keep in mind that my comments are all relative to my experience with the HP 450c and that we are not a production house. Nor do we do a lot of color-critical work.

Overall, we are very satisfied. The quality is good, the ease-of-use is good. As we upgraded from a single-sheet feed, non-cutting unit to this one, there was a very small learning curve.

I like the way single-sheet feed behaves. There is essentially a vacuum system which holds the paper in place as you align it. Loading sheets seems to work better (faster, easier, more forgiving) than the HP 450C's method. But that is to be expected with any newer printer.

The roll feed is also easy to use, but as the manual outlines, it is rather imperative that you mount the roll correctly. We had a minor issue with roll paper which seemed to be misaligned on the tube which in turn caused it to not fit on the spindle correctly (tightly). We could not get the plotter to accept it. The problem was eventually solved, but we had to play around with it just a bit - really making sure the spindle had a good tight fit. Was not so much a negative experience as it was a learning one.

We did find out how to remove the border from the overlaid objects. Minor thing, but was good to find. Seems as though it is a universal setting, so when you turn it off for one object, you turn it off for all.

Our standards are pretty basic. We create courtroom diagrams and will occasionally enlarge 10MB pixel digital photos. As far as color control, Postscript functions, output to different paper types, etc., I'm afraid I cannot be much help as we have not addressed those issues yet. We do not use the photoPRINT software so I cannot assist you there.

The printer does NOT have a hard drive, nor does it have a lot of RAM, and thus relies on the computer to stream the print jobs. We found this rather odd, but were assured that we really wouldn't see a hit on system performance. From the small number of basic files we have printed, that has indeed been the case. Jobs seem to get there very fast and start up right away.

Installation was easy, but will take two people at a couple of junctures. Driver and software installation was as easy as it should have been. We have it hooked up via TCP/IP and that works well. The printer did not seem to be automatically found right away, but as we wanted to assign it a static IP, we did that and there have been no problems. The printer driver's "control panel" is sufficient. The printer itself has an LCD panel which, despite being small, is rather informative.

As a general plotter, we are quite happy with the unit. We were fortunate enough to see it in action at Charrette in Woburn, MA. That, (and a lack of negative online reviews) was pretty much what sold us on it.

Hope all that helps,
John

[cramail]

John,

Thank you for you detailed response. We are a small architectural firm and we too have a HP 450c. I think it would be a good fit for our office. So, if we do go for the iPF 600 I will post our review.

Regards,
Nick

[Anonymous]

Canon IPF700 Plotter
Check this posting...for more info