Panasonic
The Medallion workhorses
PANASONIC
Panasonic was never a copier-first company: its copiers shared a catalogue with the fax machines that ran the division, and sold to offices that already trusted the badge. Once a decade, it swaggered.
The org chart alone deserves a plaque: in North America these were machines of Panasonic Office Products Company, a division of Panasonic Communications & Systems Company, under Matsushita Electric Corporation of America. Beneath all that sat thoroughly sensible analog copiers for small and mid-size offices, riding the dealer network Panasonic’s genuinely dominant fax business had built, and sold hard on price per copy.
The era belongs to the FP prefix, in two visible families: the xx80 office models — FP-1780 to FP-4080, speed in the leading digits, 17 to 40 cpm — and compact desktops (FP-7113/7115, later FP-7713/7715). At the top, 60–81 cpm machines like the FP-7650 and FP-7781 are confirmed by a period EPA catalogue and toner listings, and by very nearly nothing else — the best-documented near-invisible machines in this volume.
The peak came around 1996 with the “Medallion Series” — FP-7735, FP-7742 and FP-7750, at 35, 42 and 50 cpm — Panasonic’s one moment of copier swagger, an award-cited flagship line it was still name-checking in its digital-era brochures. The S2 specifications shipped with duplex standard and switched on by default, an eco-gesture years ahead of the paperwork requiring it.
Digital arrived late, cautiously, and wearing a “D”: the FP-D350 was explicitly built on the Medallion analog chassis — evolve, don’t gamble, a very Matsushita move — with the 60-ppm FP-D605 above it. The WORKiO DP series would replace the whole FP world in the 2000s, which is the last this volume will say of it.
Panasonic — The Range, 1990–2000
| Model | Year | CPM | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|
| FP-7113 / 15 | early 90s | 13 / 15 | Compact desktop pair |
| FP-1780 | 90s | 17 | Entry of the xx80 family |
| FP-4080 | 90s | 40 | Top of the xx80 family |
| FP-7735 / 42 / 50 | c. 1996 | 35–50 | Medallion Series; Plate No. 12 |
| FP-7181 / 7781 | 90s | 81 | The vanished high end |
| FP-D350 / D605 | late 90s | 35 / 60 | Digital, on the Medallion chassis |
No corporate heritage page memorialises the FP line — none exists at all. This review rests on parts catalogues, manuals preserved on archive.org and one EPA energy table. History is written by whoever kept the service manuals.
THE VERDICT — PANASONIC
Competent, conservative, carried to the bank by the fax dealer network. The Medallion proved Panasonic could swagger; the FP-D350 proved it preferred not to.
Three rungs on the fax dealer’s ladder
Panasonic’s copier range only makes sense once you accept the channel it travelled through: the fax dealership. Fax was where Panasonic genuinely ruled; the copiers rode that network like sensible luggage. Here is the ladder, rung by rung.
The entry ticket
At the bottom sat the FP-7113 and FP-7115 compact desktops — early nineties (unverified), 13 and 15 cpm (inferred), analog cartridge machines sharing the FQ-TF15 toner family. Platen only; no feeder, no finishing, no pretensions. These were not machines you chose so much as machines that were added to the invoice: the solicitor’s front room or the parish office had bought a Panasonic fax, trusted the badge, and the dealer’s pen was already moving. Against Xerox’s 1012 — 15 cpm, also platen-fed, and wearing the most famous name in copying — the FP-7115 offered the same speed from a company you were already writing cheques to. In this segment, that argument closed sales.
The engine room
The middle of the range is the xx80 family, and its naming is the tidiest in this volume: FP-1780, FP-2080, FP-2680, FP-3280, FP-4080 — the speed sits in the leading digits, 17 to 40 cpm. ADF options low in the family, RADF (unverified) by the FP-3280, sorters and optional duplex throughout, with “2-in-1” image combination flagged in the period EPA catalogue. This was the rung for the mid-size office that had graduated from the desktop: the accountancy practice, the school front office, anywhere the fax dealer’s service van already stopped weekly. Against Sharp’s SF-2022 at 22 cpm — a copier-first company’s anniversary model — the FP-2080’s 20 cpm conceded the sprint and won on the cost-per-copy arithmetic the salesman did on the back of a fax brochure.
The summit
Then, around 1996, the swagger: the Medallion Series — FP-7735, FP-7742, FP-7750, at 35, 42 and 50 cpm, RADF-fed, finisher-equipped, the S2 specifications shipping with duplex standard and switched on by default. An award-cited line, and the one time the fax dealers had something to boast about that wasn’t a fax. Digital arrived on the same chassis: the FP-D350 (35 cpm) explicitly built on the Medallion design, the 60-ppm FP-D605 above it. Against Konica’s 7050 — 50 cpm and digital, billed the world’s fastest digital copier at its 1995 launch — the analog FP-7750 matched the speed and skipped the revolution. Evolve, don’t gamble: it’s practically the Matsushita coat of arms.
If you bought one — the shortlist, 1996
| Model | Tier | Why |
|---|---|---|
| FP-7115 | The entry ticket | 15 cpm (inferred), cartridge simplicity — no service call, no drama, one line on the fax invoice |
| FP-3280 | The engine room | 32 cpm with sorter and duplex options; the xx80 family at its most sensible |
| FP-7742 | The summit | 42 cpm, duplex standard (S2), finisher at station — and it came with a medal |
“Sirs — you say the copier arrived on the fax invoice. In our office the fax arrived on the copier invoice. Same van, same man, same biscuit he always took two of.” — Office manager, Gosford. The economy of the decade, in one biscuit.
Head to head — the 40-class analog scrap
| FP-7742 (Panasonic) | BD-4550 (Toshiba) | DC-4090 (Mita) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | 42 cpm | 45 cpm | 40 cpm; 34 cpm in duplex |
| Feeder | RADF | RADF | ADF |
| Finishing | Finisher; duplex standard (S2 spec) | Sorter/finisher, duplex | Sorter; duplex standard |
| The call | Toshiba wins the sprint, Mita publishes its duplex speed like an honest grocer — but only one of these three shipped with duplex on by default and a medal on the front panel. | ||
Head to head — digital, eventually
| FP-D350 (Panasonic) | AR-5040 (Sharp) | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | 35 cpm | 40 cpm (unverified) |
| Feeder | RADF | ADF |
| Finishing | Electronic sort, duplex | Electronic sort — Sharp’s first, 1994 |
| The call | Sharp reached electronic sorting in 1994; Panasonic arrived years later wearing its Medallion analog chassis like a comfort blanket — and, characteristically, said so in the brochure. | |
BUYING ADVICE, 1990s
Buy the Medallion while the swagger lasts, take the S2 spec and let the duplex default do your conscience’s work. If the salesman opens with the copier rather than the fax, check you’re in the right dealership.