Looking to hear impressions from anyone about the new Indigo? What is great about it? Why should get one?

How big of a range of substrates can it run?

How fast is it really? Some say slower, some say faster than alternatives? What have you found?

I've been looking at the Indigo 5000 which is the same platform as the 3000 but with all the bells and whistles...

Speed, well, it has a very interesting why of measuring speed. The speed is based on 8000 finished impressions an hour (or 4000 2 up 12x18 sides per hour) for 1 and 2 color separations. 3 and 4 color seps will slow down to 4000 impressions an hour or 2000 2 up 12x18 sides per hour. It gets really confusing from there.

Cost is based on a per color separation used, regardless of ink coverage and gets cheaper the more impressions you use.

Quality is solid, it uses a wet toner / ink unlike other digital devices that use a dry toner. HP has made many improvements to the ink adherance and is completely dry before it exits the machine. Color depth and quality is impressive and probably a step above the rest of the digital printers. Consistency is impressive for solid densities given the ink nature versus toner.

Registration is good, but not perfect and requires a perfectly square cut piece of paper. An 1/8 of an inch gripper mark will be on any 2 sided print so you must live with it or cut it down to remove it. It may go away under a large stack but a visible crease from the gripper can be seen.

Substrates are vast and max out at about 12pt. Sapphire coating is not required but encouraged for specialty stocks. Vellums, rough stocks, magentic stocks, plastics, vinyls and teslins can be run. However registration from plate to plate may be off and needs to be adjusted.

Coolest features, double sheet feeder detection and purge tray before input into machine. Idle mode to keep press running while proofing. Feeder drawers just like the rest instead of the old pile feeders. Stacker(s) with elevated tray and a purge tray. Stock picking by tray and mixed media support. Spot color mixing support for special colors.

Overall, very impressive improvements in the engine and rip, cost is high, especially running 6-7 color work, but should allow owners to charge a premium for the work. Requires a highly skilled operator with press printing background to get the most out of the machine and limited variable data capabilities supported only via Quark Xpress plugin but supports PPML workflows for more complex VI apps. Seems like HP is keeping this little gem a secret, but it compares very favorably to the Nexpress and can hold its own against an iGen3.