At the time of writing this, I have had the Konica Minolta c1060 for around three months, and in this article, I will share my first thoughts on what I think about it. What I like, what I don’t like, and if I think I have made the correct decision in purchasing it.
So, when you’re thinking about investing your money in a shiny new piece of equipment, it’s only natural to want to hear what others have to say about it, right? Well, I was in the same boat, eyeing these production presses, and guess what? I couldn’t find a single review anywhere. I scoured the internet, went through all the search engines, gave YouTube a good look, and nada. Zero reviews. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Undeterred, I decided to take a deep dive into the online forums, hoping to unearth some hidden gems of information about these elusive production presses.
What I took away from the forums was that the Konica seemed to be the most reliable and cost-efficient, and owners generally seemed to be happy.
So, I searched online to see who supplied them in Ireland (for some reason, they are called Develop Production Presses in Ireland), but I found two companies that could provide them.
One of these companies only had newer models, which were about €10,000 over my budget, so I went with the older Konica Minolta c1060 model.
The Konica Minolta c1060 was released in 2014, so the model I got was almost 10 years old, but I did manage to get a three-year service contract with it.
Cardstock goes into the bottom drawer to allow for a straighter path through the printer. Even though the specs on the printer state that the maximum is 300 grams, I run 350 grams through this bottom drawer 100% of the time without any problems.
What I Like
I’ve got to say that the print quality of the Konica Minolta c1060 is pretty impressive, especially when I’m using that smooth 170-gram paper for my flyers and leaflets. You know, it shines with a print resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi. But here’s the cool part – it doesn’t stop there. This machine can handle some serious stuff, like duplex printing on 350-gram card stock. Imagine the possibilities! You can whip up business cards, craft beautiful wedding invitations, dish out gift vouchers, and create heartwarming greeting cards. It’s like having a creative powerhouse right at your fingertips!
What I Don’t Like
I have a couple of gripes with the Konica Minolta c1060.
You know, when it comes to those gradients on the thicker card stock, there’s room for improvement. They don’t quite have the smooth vibe I’m looking for. Now, don’t get me wrong—when I’m whipping up some eye-catching flyers on that lightweight 170-gram paper, everything’s great. But the story takes a turn when I switch to the hefty 350-gram paper. It’s like the gradients hit a road bump or something. So, you’ll catch me steering clear of gradients on card stock most of the time. Just my little workaround to keep things looking sharp and slick.
I would love the ability to print banners on the Konica Minolta c1060. The largest you can print is SRA3 and I do believe that the newer models allow banner printing.
It is great that the Konica Minolta c1060 can print booklets, but the problem is that it only allows this to occur on 81–91-gram paper, which is your standard office paper. You can give the printer the option to pull a cover from a different tray, but again, if you use anything heavier than 81 to 91 grams, the Konica will not print it. However, there is a way around this.
When you put paper into one of the drawers on the Konica Minolta c1060, the machine automatically picks up the size of that paper. It is up to you to input the weight on the paper. You could tell the printer a little lie here, although I would not go too crazy. Yes, the Konica will print it. But will the booklet maker fold and staple it?
Finally, and I am sure if I were a bit more experienced with these machines, I could fix this problem, but the duplex printing is slightly off. My fix is to shift the second page five pixels to the right in Adobe InDesign to correct this.
Any Problems?
I guess with any piece of equipment that is almost 10 years old, you are going to run into problems.
The first problem I had occurred during the first week. I got an order in which I had to design and supply 500 booklets for a memorial mass. What was happening was that the centre page of the booklet was not folded nor stapled in the centre. I would say, from the order of 500 booklets, I would throw around 60 to 70 in the bin and redo them. These were 16-page booklets that were full of images on the inside, so it was a waste of a lot of paper and a waste of a lot of toner. I did call the supplier about this, but their solution did not help.
The second problem occurred again with the booklet maker. I got a paper jam and removed the jammed paper from the booklet maker. As soon as I closed the door of the unit, I got a message on the screen telling me to call service. This error put the whole machine out of action, and I had to disconnect the booklet maker to use the printer again.
Luckily, the supplier was out the following day to fix it. As he was in the studio, I asked him about the problem I had with the centre page of some booklets not folding or stapling in the centre and he gave me a reason as to why it happens and what to do about it.
Static was building up, and the last sheet of paper was not dropping into the folding and stapling unit fast enough (or something like that). So, he folded a sheet of A4 paper in such a way, then placed it on the unit so that the paper that was to be used for a booklet would tip against this A4 folded sheet, thus knocking it down into the folder and stapler unit. I have tried it since, and it works a charm.
Did I make the correct decision in purchasing the Konica Minolta c1060?
I would say yes, simply because I got a three-year service contract with it. The Konica Minolta C1060 set me back €15,000 (€3000 of this was VAT). I have not been keeping track, but I would say that after three months, I would have recovered 1/5th of this, and that is as a start-up. I would like to think that after the three-year contract is up, I will have a good chunk saved for a newer model. And if this is the kind of quality they could produce 10 years ago, what can they produce now?
You could find one cheaper on the buy and sell pages. I have seen the same model on Done Deal for €8,500, but I just felt it was too big of a gamble to spend that kind of money on an almost 10-year-old printer without some sort of guarantee.
I would like to be capable of printing banners on it, plus I would like to be able to print booklets on heavier paper and allow for a heavier cover. But apart from that, I have been impressed with the Konica Minolta c1060 thus far.
I’ll update this article further down the line, and if you have any questions, please feel free to write them in the comment section.
Konica Minolta c1060