Richo L5160 - anyone got one?

[Scrathcy]

Hi Guys Im looking at the newish Richo L5160 latex printer with white.
The standout points for me compared to the HP latex 570 are..

Its much faster..
True CMYK, no extra colors like "light magenta" etc..
Apparently its easier to load but I haven't seen it yet.
Don't have to change heads.
White is an option for printing on clear, I could use that..

Its between $35 - $40 K
Anyone have any experience or comments with this unit..

 

[Christian @ Visual Graphx]

Wow they jumped the price alot!

The ink is not like HP, scratches really easy and we can separate it from the base film when laminated.

 

[greysquirrel]

Epson S80 is a better decision. You could buy 2 at that price. The Richo has not had a good track record...if you need to go latex, stick with HP.

 

[greysquirrel]

I'm not sure what true cmyk gets you either except a smaller color gamut. If you need a cmyk only profile, you can create one onboard with a hp l365 or 560. Or better yet, buy 2 epson s80's with an Ione color meter for the same price as the Ricoh

 

[Christian @ Visual Graphx]

I'm not sure what true cmyk gets you either except a smaller color gamut. If you need a cmyk only profile, you can create one onboard with a hp l365 or 560. Or better yet, buy 2 epson s80's with an Ione color meter for the same price as the Ricoh

The gamut is huge on the ricoh, it has a 4pl dot size and greyscale heads.

 

[greysquirrel]

...40k is all I need to know
that's a lot of money for one unit to end up printing banners

 

[Christian @ Visual Graphx]

...40k is all I need to know
that's a lot of money for one unit to end up printing banners

We were originally quoted $23,000 in may. That's a huge jump.

 

[tudouqiezi]

I prefer Mimaki ucjv300

 

[Scrathcy]

Thanks Guys...
In aswer to a few things.
A couple of responses.

CMKY
I find the black on my HP has a greeny look when compared to other printers that are pure cmyk. You wouldnt know unless you compared them. I have A colorado 1640 and the color is absoulty amazing. Cant do wraps though.. I also have a HP 335. We use for wraps. Great printer no issues, except black, Speed and it strteches long runs.

The Richo has an amazing write up and so wondered who might have one to confirm, is it a better choice for speed and color than the HP.

Wow, $23K and I was quoted $35-40K
What the heck happened? We got our quote through Pacific Automation, who did you get your quote though?

You Said!

Wow they jumped the price alot! The ink is not like HP, scratches really easy and we can separate it from the base film when laminated.

Do you have one of the printers and that is your experiecne or did you read it..?

Would love to hear from someone who has one.. My use is mainly for wraps, then generic signange.. Our Colorado 1640 is useles for anything that is not flat..

 

[Christian @ Visual Graphx]

POA is not a reseller so they buy then sell. I can give you Mike's number from Ricoh if you want to PM me.

We don't have one... we were looking at buying one in may but it couldn't compete with our HP and we could easily scratch the ink and pull it off the vinyl surface so we passed.

We just bought a 1650 for fleet graphics and simple wraps to go with our 570s.

 

[greysquirrel]

Your blacks look greenish? Do you build your files in cmyk or rgb? I’m guessing cmyk. I always work in rgb, the rip will convert everything to cmyk. Running a color calibration on your 335 should resolve that.
The other thing to look at is your build of black. You don’t need anything more than 30/30/30/100 I use 20/20/20/100

 

[Scrathcy]

Hey Buddy
Thanks for that, yea sounds about right.. I couldn't say at the moment as my HP is In Australia, but will check with my partner.
It is one of the things that always annoyed me about the HP is that great black has to be a combo of colors. Would be great if 100% black was black without emptying the tank.

Yea can we chat about who to contact for the Richo..

 

[dypinc]

So what is wrong with 100% HP Latex Black? I set black output value to 100% black all the time and it looks pretty good. Never found much advantage to set the output values to 20/20/20/100 as it looked visually the same, and anything more looked worse because you started hitting the built in ink density values and were probably not getting 100% K any more.

When you print the calibration target what is wrong with the black patch? It looks fine to me.

 

[Scrathcy]

Someone might need to confirm this. But I am fairly sure the HP still prints a spread of inks even when you set 100% black..

 

[dypinc]

Someone might need to confirm this. But I am fairly sure the HP still prints a spread of inks even when you set 100% black..

No it does not. If you send it an output value of 100% K that is what it prints providing you ink density setting in the media preset is not set to low. You can print pure C, M or Y the same way. Might be some RIPs can't be set to do that but for RIPs that have Replace Color functions you can set the output value. But all rips should if CM is turn off print 100% of each color providing the input file is 100% only of each color.

 

[Scrathcy]

Ok, thanks, Ill look into that.
I remember quite some time ago I did tests where I made up a number of CMYK swatches with different color mixes for black and everyone of them looked identical when printed. I cant remember now how I determined the final results, but it frustrated me that I couldn't control black from within the design..
I am a Corel Trainer so I understand color from within CorelDraw quite well and I was using Flexi for the rip.

 

[dypinc]

You first have to understand all the ways a RIP handles black including how black is generated by your output profile based on your settings when you create that profile, and how it can affect what the printer actually prints before you design anything. For example with black if you don't want to use the color replacement tool in the RIP you could make a spot color library with CMYK output values that the RIP would use for that named spot color.