A friend of mine is interested in buying an inkjet printer for
printing photographs etc and was told by someone that the Canon PIXMA
MP170 multifunction was great for this purpose and was cheap to buy.
I'm starting to see the mp780 on closeout as of late. I can't remember
the store in particular but it was clearly $200 in the store with a $50
rebate. I own the mp760 which is the same thing except with a slide
scanner, card slots, and no sheet feeder. It's the same resolution as
the mp170, but the cost of ink is less. Huge sucker.
The mp500 is the current generation and qualifies for the same $30
rebate the mp170 does. It's more money but you get lower operating
costs for that extra fee, an extra fee of about $10 bucks each time you
buy a black cartridge. This adds up really fast. If you must buy an
all-in-one take long term costs into account. $50 extra today might
save you $100 in a year easily.
mp500/mp800/ip4200/ip5200 etc...etc...
26 ml $13.95 Canon PGI-5 Black Ink Tank
13ish ml $11.95 Canon CLI-8C Cyan Ink Tank
13ish ml $11.95 Canon CLI-8 Magenta Ink Tank
13ish ml $12.88 Canon CLI-8Y Yellow Ink Tank
13ish ml $11.95 Canon CLI-8Bk Black Ink Tank
<ish means i'm using the older size as a reference, the new size is off
by a ml or two but I can't remember exactly).
mp170 ip1600 and such
21ml $28.49 Canon CL-51 High-Capacity Color FINE Ink
Cartridge
22ml $24.69 Canon PG-50 Black FINE Ink Cartridge-High Capacity
Others would reccomend a seperate printer and a scanner. Not a bad
plan. If they only have enough for the mp170 than it would be wise to
consider the ip4200/ip5200 then with the money saved on ink buy a
scanner.