Excellent Photocopier

Review of Minolta Dialta 2510

I have had this machine for a year now. I bought it with the automatic document feeder, scanner and internet/USB connection. The recto-verso comes built in.

I am based in Africa. I have had no experience of other office machines, except a few years use of a 16 page/minute Cannon. I therefore needed something that was very reliable. What little advice I could find on the internet said that I should choose the companies that made cameras: Cannon, Sharp, Ricoh, or Minolta. These first three had machines with far too many options, and were too expensive. Minolta has a good reputation locally for service, and I made a point of buying from the main dealer. I also looked at Xerox, but their price was much higher.

The local service is excellent, at all levels. While negotiating the purchase, the manager actually advised me to wait a few months, because the newer machines would be cheaper and have higher performance - how right she was. Meantime, they answered all my questions, even detailed technical ones that they had to go away and seek answers for. It turns out Minolta runs a confidential website for technicians. Customer satisfaction seems to be more important than immediate profit.

When they delivered, all three senior technicians came - it was obvious this was the first machine of its kind for them.

Printed documentation is basic. There is loads more on disk, though the full manual was buried, and I ended up getting it off the web. I found the basic documentation helpful, but the detailed material is very frustrating. It is very repetitive, and overdoes the easy stuff, while mentioning the harder stuff with no explanation. A friend pointed out this is probably deliberate. The easy stuff is explained well for the user, but the harder stuff requires a technician to interpret it so that enthusiastic knowledgeable amateurs do not end up doing too much. Sometimes it is not at all clear which choices to make and why, therefore the use of "scenarios" would have helped.

Then I found that printing was unreliable. Pages would be missing. I put up with that for months. I tried the forum on the USA site, and got some very polite but limited replies. They could not help. I finally called in the technician, the one responsible for computers, who re-set up my network and gently scolded me for trying to do that myself. It turned out that I needed to use an LPR port - something I cannot remember seeing documented. I have had no problems since. I have though been amazed how slow printing a pdf file can be - much slower than the hp laserjet 1200 I run from the usb port. Recently I read somewhere that the files are expanded to over ten times their original size, so that obviously takes time to send over the LAN. I do find this disappointing though, and when in a hurry I will print the first copy on the printer, then go downstairs and photocopy more. In addition, when printing Recto-Verso the time goes up enormously - for some reason this takes up a lot of processing power.

When I first installed the printer driver, by mistake, I ended up clicking on E, thinking this meant English. Espagnol, Spanish, was meant, so I have had to suffer Spanish from then on. Despite several attempts to uninstall and reinstall, even when I choose English or French, the basics come up as Spanish. In the end I gave up, installed English on another computer, and looked there for the translation. Also, the extras that you may have must be installed and activated in the driver including for instance, the Recto-Verso unit, even though this is standard not optional. There seem to be no built in fonts, and a 4.5Mb Word Perfect text file of 600 pages took over an hour to download when using recto-verso. And printing only starts once the whole file is downloaded, and sometimes ties up the computer.

When I installed the scanner, I had big problems with the installation software. I ended up comparing several websites (USA, UK, and France), finding the driver for the scanner, and installing it. It worked, well enough, but turn on the network, then a computer restart and copier restart for best results. And do a test scan first before doing a batch of work. Again, I should have let the technician set up scanning, but I am loathe to let anyone near my computer. Scanning is VERY unforgiving with misfeeds of the Automatic rectoverso sheet feeder - one misfeed means a restart the scanning job, whereas a misfeed when copying is correctable accurately and the job can continue.

The machine itself is great. In 150,000 sides, I have had less than 10 misfeeds, and most of them were my fault. Since one of the biggest running costs is paper, this two sided copying is a real saver, and it really works. In addition, the paper feed path is very simple and short, so deblocking is very easy.

The machine has a control panel with an adjustable angle. I regard this as one of the most vulnerable parts of the machine since it sticks out and is easily banged. Therefore I have positioned the machine so that people do not easily pass by and catch it.
Some frustrations:

1. The ping command, for testing the network, is buried in the administrator area. A simple set of ping commands available in user would help a user to check if it is the copier, or one of the attached computers, that is the problem.

2. Minolta boast about "One touch" for various scanning operations. But this means you can choose the destination computer with one touch. It does not mean you can establish various one touch settings for one destination computer.

This is my greatest niggle, and I do hope they can solve it using some fancy flash-Rom method. I want for instance to set up one touch
a. 400 dpi tiff for single sided originals to computer A
b. 400 dpi tiff for double sided originals to computer A, etc

It could possibly be done by setting up different user accounts, but I have not tried that.

In addition, once the default is set for either single sided or double sided, changing that for each job is a real pain, and is buried over several clicks on the touch screen, and I have to do that for each scanned document. When I copy, the settings stay in memory (even when turned off into sleep mode). When I scan, I have to punch in the settings I want every time.

3. The scanner is only in Black and White. The latest Samsung All in One laserjets have scanning in colour, but copying in black and white. This is a failing for such an expensive machine.

4. I cannot find any "Feedback" pages on Minolta, let alone a forum which invites feedback and where you can have discussions with the developer, as for instance is run by the 4Dos/4NT people (enhanced command lines from JPsoftware for Windows 98 or Windows XP, I cannot do computing without them).

5. Once a copy job has been done, it stays in memory. I cannot then change the density for the repeat copying.

6. The machine will separate multiple copies of booklets, using a criss-cross pattern. Sometimes after memory recall, it fails to do this. To be sure, each booklet is printed in turn - one of the great advantages of digital copiers, but they will be piled in one on top of the other and will need manual sorting.

7. Sometimes the machine just fails to obey orders. At this point, like a computer that has been overworked with several complicated tasks, I do a complete reboot, avoiding sleep mode. I turn off for at least 10 seconds, then restart. This usually cures the problem.

8. While copied work is kept in memory, printed work is not, which is a pity. Printing can take so long to download, it would be nice to print one copy, and have memory recall if I decide to repeat the same job.

9. There is plenty of memory for big books. Although the document feeder takes only 80 pages, by careful sliding of new pages underneath the old before it is finished, I have managed to send a 500 page recto-verso book through the copier, and the memory was not all used up. You need the optional hard disk if you want to store jobs - only the previous one is kept in memory, with a useful over-ride mode where you can effectively change to another user and do some inserted copying.

10. The machine does not take kindly to printing and copying at the same time. Queuing is problematic.

11. Through the local network, I have set up a shortcut to Internet Explorer which questions the copier (30 meters away, one floor down). This gives me control over settings etc. I would love it if the copier could signal the computer when long jobs are finished, out of paper, etc. It does have a helpful light, with optional sounds which can be turned on or off.

12. It took me a really long while to work out how to use the bypass tray - somehow the labels were not clear. The bypass will not do rectoverso. Also, it really protests when I send through a really long sheet of cardboard, which I have been doing because of wrap-around covers for books. The idea is that I print on the cover, and guillotine the surplus. Like the printer, the extra long paper needs to just be rolled through, which it does, but then demands a reset, per sheet.

13. When it comes to warnings about replacements, the toner light comes on at least 500 pages before absolutely needed. It is worth going on till the bottle is empty, but it will then stop suddenly. Adding toner is really easy. But after 90,000 copies, I was told I needed to replace the PC drum and the Imaging unit. The site in America told me they were two items, and that the planned life was 80,000, and that unless a technician had changed a default, I could keep going without danger, and the quality would slowly diminish. I got to 150,000 before I decided to change, and was told by the local technician it was one item. Having seen the technician change the drum, I could do the same now. It comes out easily, and with four screws lifts off from the developer unit. Care, if you get it wrong you get developer pouring out! (that cost me something). But, when replaced, it does not automatically reset. It turns out you need some secret technician code to reset the PC drum-use counter, and if not reset you risk the machine concluding enough is enough, shutting down, then refusing to accept a perfectly good drum when the technician resets the counter. So, cough up and call the technician even for the simple job of changing the drum.

14. The scanner only scans in black and white, and there was no OCR software. Both these faults on a machine this expensive are regrettable.

15. I cannot copy, then redirect the memorised material to scan, so I end up doing a copy then putting it through the scanner.

So, to sum up, a marvellous photocopier, and the scanner works fine and fast, but the printing is slow and the interface needs improving. I did not need the fax option or other finishing options.