Oki C5100n initial impressions

Follow up after a little more work with this printer: Two flaw found, and
another positive:

1. My first print after an extended power save (overnight) shows a ghosting
issue. It appears the engine has a problem producing a clean page on the first
try. Perhaps not enough warm up? It's a minor annoyance. Not sure what the
issue is, but I plan to discuss this with Oki support.

2. The bypass tray is slightly hard to open.

3. The bypass tray design, other than being a little sticky when trying to open
it, is excellent. I fed #9 size envelopes through it, and they came out
aligned perfectly. The bypass feed mechasim operates smoothly. What a joy!

Rich

Rich -

Appreciate your comments on this. I am evaluating several printers and am
seriously considering the c5100/c5300 solution. The quality of the images
and the pop of the color really stand out in my opinion.


"Rich Stern" wrote in message
...
I just purchased an Oki C5100n. There is a general lack of user feedback
on
the net about this machine, so I figured I would publish my initial
impressions.

I needed a replacement for an old Epson Actionlaser 1100 (it faithfully
printed
thousands of pages over the last six or seven years, but misfeeds finally
wore
me down). I wanted an ethernet capable printer to service several PCs in
my
home office. When I looked at monochrome network printers, they weren't
signficantly less money than color desktop lasers with ethernet. I have
some
potential applications for color printing, so I decided to focus on color
lasers. My volume is relatively low, so cost per page was not a critical
factor in my decision.

I read some reviews at the Printer Showcase web site
(printershowcase.com).
Their "editors choice" was the Oki c5300n. The C5100n and C5300n have the
same
print engine. The C5100n is strictly a Windows compatible machine. The
C5300n
adds Postscript and PCL capability, making it suitable for Mac and *nix
users.
I don't have anything but XP and 98 running, and don't expect to have
anything
but Windows on my LAN. The Printer Showcase review frowned on the
c5100n's
print quality for images, so that had me concerned, since my color
printing
need is primarily 640x480 to 1280x960 JPGs. I decided I needed a
comparison
test using my images.

The C5100n and C5300n were on display at the local MicroCenter store. The
sample output from both machines looked very good. I brought along a disk
with
some of the JPG images I would be printing, but the technician at
Microcenter
was out, and the saleperson said that it would take some time before he
returned to hook up a laptop to the Oki printers. I explained my image
printing concerns to the saleperson, who went on to say that I could bring
the
C5100n back and exchange it for the C5300n, paying only the difference, if
I
was disatisfied with the print quality. Couldn't quibble with that, so I
took
the plunge and purchased the C5100n.

Back at my office, I unpacked the C5100n and followed the instructions for
installing the toner cartridges. The instructions for physcial unpacking
and
installing the cartridges were slightly sparse, but reasonable.
Everything
went smoothly and I had the printer ready to go in about fifteen minutes.
I
plugged the printer into a 10/100 hub on my network, and powered it up.
The
printer went through a series of self-calibration excercises that took
several
minutes. I then printed the system information page via the printer's LCD
display and control panel. The output showed that the printer had
successfully
been assigned a DHCP address by my router. I printed a sample color page
via
the control panel, which came out looking good.

Next, I installed the drivers from the included CD to two machines: An XP
Home
laptop, and a Win 98 SE desktop. Both installs went smoothly. I only had
to
specify the IP address of the printer and select a name for the printer on
the
network. The printer worked from both machines on the first test. I
printed
JPGs, BMPs, GIFs, PDFs, and various documents from a variety of
applications,
including Fireworks, Adobe Acrobat, Word, the XP Picture/Fax viewer, IE 6,
among others. The results were outstanding. The output was consistently
excellent on everything I printed. Images looked great. So much for the
Printer Showcase review. This is the closest thing to WYSIWYG I have seen
in
25 years of computing. If you can live with Windows only printing, the
C5100n
is all that is necessary. The C5300n would be overkill.

Physically, the machine is slightly loud when printing, hums at a normal
office
equipment (cooling fan) level when waiting for the next print job, and
silent
when in power save mode. Output speed is excellent. Typical document
pages
fly out of the thing at what I perceive is close to the rated speed of
20ppm.
Color pages also come out quickly. Warm up for first print from power
save
seems to be a bit long, but that doesn't bother me. The paper tray works
well.
Haven't tried the bypass feed yet. Time will tell on reliability. I've
had
other Oki printers over the years, and they've been workhorses. I hope
this
machine proves as reliable.

The C5100n comes with 32MB of ram (versus 64MB for the C5300n). I may add
more, but after throwing a lot of documents and graphics at the thing, I
don't
see the need. Price was $799 (regularly $899) and there was a $100
rebate, so
final cost was $699 plus tax. Remarkable. Less than a decade ago, the
Tektronics Phaser was the big hit in color office printing, costing (and
weighing) about ten times as much. Things change!

If you are debating dekstop color lasers machines, as I was, the C5100n
looks
to be money well spent. If you are purely a Windows user, no need to
spend on
the C5300n. I'll post some updates on reliability and consistency as I do
real
work with this thing.

Rich

Doug, glad you found the info helpful.

Follow up on the ghosting problem: The problem was very consistent,
so I went to OKI's support site and sent them an email regarding the
problem. They sent a reply back asking me to call one of their color
specialists via an 800 number, which I did. The specialist diagnosed
the problem as a faulty fuser unit. OKI overnighted me a new one, and
the problem is now resolved. I didn't even ask for overnight
shipping. Quality of service was excellent. Phone call was handled
fast, courteously, and professionally, and best of all, problem
solved. Printer runs perfectly now on every print regardless of
length of time in power save mode. I am a happy camper.


"Big Rhino" wrote in message y.com...
Rich -

Appreciate your comments on this. I am evaluating several printers and am
seriously considering the c5100/c5300 solution. The quality of the images
and the pop of the color really stand out in my opinion.


"Rich Stern" wrote in message
...
I just purchased an Oki C5100n. There is a general lack of user feedback
on
the net about this machine, so I figured I would publish my initial
impressions.

I needed a replacement for an old Epson Actionlaser 1100 (it faithfully
printed
thousands of pages over the last six or seven years, but misfeeds finally
wore
me down). I wanted an ethernet capable printer to service several PCs in
my
home office. When I looked at monochrome network printers, they weren't
signficantly less money than color desktop lasers with ethernet. I have
some
potential applications for color printing, so I decided to focus on color
lasers. My volume is relatively low, so cost per page was not a critical
factor in my decision.

I read some reviews at the Printer Showcase web site
(printershowcase.com).
Their "editors choice" was the Oki c5300n. The C5100n and C5300n have the
same
print engine. The C5100n is strictly a Windows compatible machine. The
C5300n
adds Postscript and PCL capability, making it suitable for Mac and *nix
users.
I don't have anything but XP and 98 running, and don't expect to have
anything
but Windows on my LAN. The Printer Showcase review frowned on the
c5100n's
print quality for images, so that had me concerned, since my color
printing
need is primarily 640x480 to 1280x960 JPGs. I decided I needed a
comparison
test using my images.

The C5100n and C5300n were on display at the local MicroCenter store. The
sample output from both machines looked very good. I brought along a disk
with
some of the JPG images I would be printing, but the technician at
Microcenter
was out, and the saleperson said that it would take some time before he
returned to hook up a laptop to the Oki printers. I explained my image
printing concerns to the saleperson, who went on to say that I could bring
the
C5100n back and exchange it for the C5300n, paying only the difference, if
I
was disatisfied with the print quality. Couldn't quibble with that, so I
took
the plunge and purchased the C5100n.

Back at my office, I unpacked the C5100n and followed the instructions for
installing the toner cartridges. The instructions for physcial unpacking
and
installing the cartridges were slightly sparse, but reasonable.
Everything
went smoothly and I had the printer ready to go in about fifteen minutes.
I
plugged the printer into a 10/100 hub on my network, and powered it up.
The
printer went through a series of self-calibration excercises that took
several
minutes. I then printed the system information page via the printer's LCD
display and control panel. The output showed that the printer had
successfully
been assigned a DHCP address by my router. I printed a sample color page
via
the control panel, which came out looking good.

Next, I installed the drivers from the included CD to two machines: An XP
Home
laptop, and a Win 98 SE desktop. Both installs went smoothly. I only had
to
specify the IP address of the printer and select a name for the printer on
the
network. The printer worked from both machines on the first test. I
printed
JPGs, BMPs, GIFs, PDFs, and various documents from a variety of
applications,
including Fireworks, Adobe Acrobat, Word, the XP Picture/Fax viewer, IE 6,
among others. The results were outstanding. The output was consistently
excellent on everything I printed. Images looked great. So much for the
Printer Showcase review. This is the closest thing to WYSIWYG I have seen
in
25 years of computing. If you can live with Windows only printing, the
C5100n
is all that is necessary. The C5300n would be overkill.

Physically, the machine is slightly loud when printing, hums at a normal
office
equipment (cooling fan) level when waiting for the next print job, and
silent
when in power save mode. Output speed is excellent. Typical document
pages
fly out of the thing at what I perceive is close to the rated speed of
20ppm.
Color pages also come out quickly. Warm up for first print from power
save
seems to be a bit long, but that doesn't bother me. The paper tray works
well.
Haven't tried the bypass feed yet. Time will tell on reliability. I've
had
other Oki printers over the years, and they've been workhorses. I hope
this
machine proves as reliable.

The C5100n comes with 32MB of ram (versus 64MB for the C5300n). I may add
more, but after throwing a lot of documents and graphics at the thing, I
don't
see the need. Price was $799 (regularly $899) and there was a $100
rebate, so
final cost was $699 plus tax. Remarkable. Less than a decade ago, the
Tektronics Phaser was the big hit in color office printing, costing (and
weighing) about ten times as much. Things change!

If you are debating dekstop color lasers machines, as I was, the C5100n
looks
to be money well spent. If you are purely a Windows user, no need to
spend on
the C5300n. I'll post some updates on reliability and consistency as I do
real
work with this thing.

Rich

I purchased the Oki 5150n at my local Comp USA... it is an excellent
printer... but you seem to have paid much more money... I paid $583.00
and got a $200.00 mail in rebate (and I have received the check).. I
have mine on the network and it work with my Win XP Pro machine and
with my IMac G5...
Costco has the high cap toner carts for $119.00 each for color...
Regards,
Glenn M



On 11 Jul 2003 02:06:46 GMT, (Rich Stern) wrote:

I just purchased an Oki C5100n. There is a general lack of user feedback on
the net about this machine, so I figured I would publish my initial
impressions.

I needed a replacement for an old Epson Actionlaser 1100 (it faithfully printed
thousands of pages over the last six or seven years, but misfeeds finally wore
me down). I wanted an ethernet capable printer to service several PCs in my
home office. When I looked at monochrome network printers, they weren't
signficantly less money than color desktop lasers with ethernet. I have some
potential applications for color printing, so I decided to focus on color
lasers. My volume is relatively low, so cost per page was not a critical
factor in my decision.

I read some reviews at the Printer Showcase web site (printershowcase.com).
Their "editors choice" was the Oki c5300n. The C5100n and C5300n have the same
print engine. The C5100n is strictly a Windows compatible machine. The C5300n
adds Postscript and PCL capability, making it suitable for Mac and *nix users.
I don't have anything but XP and 98 running, and don't expect to have anything
but Windows on my LAN. The Printer Showcase review frowned on the c5100n's
print quality for images, so that had me concerned, since my color printing
need is primarily 640x480 to 1280x960 JPGs. I decided I needed a comparison
test using my images.

The C5100n and C5300n were on display at the local MicroCenter store. The
sample output from both machines looked very good. I brought along a disk with
some of the JPG images I would be printing, but the technician at Microcenter
was out, and the saleperson said that it would take some time before he
returned to hook up a laptop to the Oki printers. I explained my image
printing concerns to the saleperson, who went on to say that I could bring the
C5100n back and exchange it for the C5300n, paying only the difference, if I
was disatisfied with the print quality. Couldn't quibble with that, so I took
the plunge and purchased the C5100n.

Back at my office, I unpacked the C5100n and followed the instructions for
installing the toner cartridges. The instructions for physcial unpacking and
installing the cartridges were slightly sparse, but reasonable. Everything
went smoothly and I had the printer ready to go in about fifteen minutes. I
plugged the printer into a 10/100 hub on my network, and powered it up. The
printer went through a series of self-calibration excercises that took several
minutes. I then printed the system information page via the printer's LCD
display and control panel. The output showed that the printer had successfully
been assigned a DHCP address by my router. I printed a sample color page via
the control panel, which came out looking good.

Next, I installed the drivers from the included CD to two machines: An XP Home
laptop, and a Win 98 SE desktop. Both installs went smoothly. I only had to
specify the IP address of the printer and select a name for the printer on the
network. The printer worked from both machines on the first test. I printed
JPGs, BMPs, GIFs, PDFs, and various documents from a variety of applications,
including Fireworks, Adobe Acrobat, Word, the XP Picture/Fax viewer, IE 6,
among others. The results were outstanding. The output was consistently
excellent on everything I printed. Images looked great. So much for the
Printer Showcase review. This is the closest thing to WYSIWYG I have seen in
25 years of computing. If you can live with Windows only printing, the C5100n
is all that is necessary. The C5300n would be overkill.

Physically, the machine is slightly loud when printing, hums at a normal office
equipment (cooling fan) level when waiting for the next print job, and silent
when in power save mode. Output speed is excellent. Typical document pages
fly out of the thing at what I perceive is close to the rated speed of 20ppm.
Color pages also come out quickly. Warm up for first print from power save
seems to be a bit long, but that doesn't bother me. The paper tray works well.
Haven't tried the bypass feed yet. Time will tell on reliability. I've had
other Oki printers over the years, and they've been workhorses. I hope this
machine proves as reliable.

The C5100n comes with 32MB of ram (versus 64MB for the C5300n). I may add
more, but after throwing a lot of documents and graphics at the thing, I don't
see the need. Price was $799 (regularly $899) and there was a $100 rebate, so
final cost was $699 plus tax. Remarkable. Less than a decade ago, the
Tektronics Phaser was the big hit in color office printing, costing (and
weighing) about ten times as much. Things change!

If you are debating dekstop color lasers machines, as I was, the C5100n looks
to be money well spent. If you are purely a Windows user, no need to spend on
the C5300n. I'll post some updates on reliability and consistency as I do real
work with this thing.

Rich

A GREAT DAY FOR FREEDOM...Pink Floyd