Anyone have a Roland RE-640?

[wmshuman]

I was thinking of buying the above printer but does anyone on here actually own one? If so, can you give me some honest feedback? What do you like about it, and dislike about it?

I currently own a 4 year old SP-300V and I have loved the printer except for the fact that I can't print more than 70 Sq. Ft. an hour and only up to 30" (actually 28.5") wide.

I am not in an area where I think I would profit from using white or metallic ink so that is really out of the question for me. I really only want this printer to be able to print wider. I know the gamut is a little better on this printer than only my SP-300V but the RE still uses 4 color.

I probably will miss the built in cutter but I am keeping my current model so I can always use registration marks and cut with it, although not wider than 30". I can't even think of a time when I needed to cut graphics larger than 30" (in one piece) so I don't think that will be an issue for me. My only real concerns are being able to print 4' and 5' tall banners and of course vehicle and wall wraps.

If you own this printer, are you happy with the color gamut (blues, reds and greens)? What kind of square feet an hour do you typically get in a normal printing mode? Is the high speed mode with bidirectional printing actually print as well as Roland says? What rip do you use. I am currently using a mac and hate using Parallels so what rip would you recommend if I choose to not use Versaworks? Currently I am using Flexi 8 and have never upgraded since.

I welcome all feedback. Please help me make this decision. Thank you!

 

[Robert M]

Flexi 8

That is the end of the line for Flexi and Mac, they currently do not have a Flexi 10 for Mac. May be cheaper to run with the manufactures RIP on a Windows box as a RIP station.

 

[xxtoni]

I was thinking of buying the above printer but does anyone on here actually own one? If so, can you give me some honest feedback? What do you like about it, and dislike about it?

I currently own a 4 year old SP-300V and I have loved the printer except for the fact that I can't print more than 70 Sq. Ft. an hour and only up to 30" (actually 28.5") wide.

I am not in an area where I think I would profit from using white or metallic ink so that is really out of the question for me. I really only want this printer to be able to print wider. I know the gamut is a little better on this printer than only my SP-300V but the RE still uses 4 color.

I probably will miss the built in cutter but I am keeping my current model so I can always use registration marks and cut with it, although not wider than 30". I can't even think of a time when I needed to cut graphics larger than 30" (in one piece) so I don't think that will be an issue for me. My only real concerns are being able to print 4' and 5' tall banners and of course vehicle and wall wraps.

If you own this printer, are you happy with the color gamut (blues, reds and greens)? What kind of square feet an hour do you typically get in a normal printing mode? Is the high speed mode with bidirectional printing actually print as well as Roland says? What rip do you use. I am currently using a mac and hate using Parallels so what rip would you recommend if I choose to not use Versaworks? Currently I am using Flexi 8 and have never upgraded since.

I welcome all feedback. Please help me make this decision. Thank you!

Hello,

I don't have a RE but I have a VS-640 which is like the REs big brother. I have mine setup with lights and metallic.

I don't think that you'll have any problems with the RE when it comes to gamut. I have been to the Milan expo and seen some of them in action and the when run in 4 color mode it is pretty much the same as on a VS-640 in dual CMYK. Of all the printers in our company I "trust" the VS the most when it comes to gamut and color correction.

Regarding the square feet, I don't have one so I can't give you a direct answer to this one BUT, the VS is definitely slower than the RE but one advantage that I have with the VS over all my other printers (which are 1.8m and 3.3m) is that the VS requires no "supervision" at all. I start the print, hook it up on the takeup system and walk away. So for me it doesn't really matter how long it takes since I'll be leaving it to do it's thing. But we do mostly stuff with bigger clients that usually require higher volumes instead of many clients coming by wanting different things so your experience in this regard may vary.

Getting a RIP machine for your printer might not be a bad idea. I am a Mac user myself but there are 2 computers in our company that run Windows 7 and are connected to the VS so we just use VersaWorks but we have independent machines for our other printers running PhotoPrint (Flexi).

Hope that helps a bit.

Regards
A