Having leased to purchase my ML-500 (about 10 years ago now I guess) - I am faced with Kodak no longer manufacturing the media for it <sigh>
Having moved on to another printing solution - I'm wondering:
What do I do with with this 125# paperweight sitting on my desk? ... recycle it ? dump it in the landfill ? ... is there some Kodak graveyard I can send it to ?
.... just wondering.
Kudos to Kodak to building a bomb-proof printing solution that I have literally run miles of media thru with not so much as a burp.
Disses to Kodak for discontinuing the media for it - but I understand technology must move forward (?)
I too face the same dilemma with a Kodak ML500. Except I haven't found a replacement for this printer. I just haven't found anything that is close in capability to the ML500, short of daisy-chaining several printers together.
Not much demand to "part it out" since all ML500 owners are pretty much in the same boat. When the time comes, I'll probably dispose of my ML500 with a computer/electronics disposal. Maybe turn it over on it's side and make a planter box for flowers....
Ken, I actually QUIT trying to haul this thing around several years ago - In doing so, I also abandoned a small piece of my business where I was actually printing onsite. I had actually pulled back from these types of events when I started charging my clients an additional fee for printing on site. It was amazing, they all came back to me and said - "it's really not necessary to print on site". I'm a true believer that just because you can print onsite, doesn't mean you need to - and I was running major events with 2 onsite studios.
I was doing most of my in-house printing of 5x7 and 8x10's on the 500 - anything larger and I'm using my Epson 9900. I've finally figured out (somewhat) how to print my production runs on the 9900 - so I'm just going to use it. But it does change my workflow, since I can't print to a hot folder anymore (which is what I did with the 500).
My experience with the 500 has been fantastic - I got mine when they were $22K - but, I was able to retire 3 8660's to do so - so it paid for itself very quickly -
