To Husker92,
You are somewhat asking some questions I carefully reserached about a year ago. And then you throw in two new jokers into the deck--namely your budgit and your desire for a multifuntional.
First of all, my Canon printers are often idle for weeks at a time and have no problem. Any normal inkjetprinter has problems with three or more months---but Epsons would be good printers were it not that they are super prone to head clogging--unless used almost daily.
And recent marketing changes by all manufacters now complicates your choices. Namely the issue that all newer printers seemes to be using some chip scheme to force consumers to use only OEM cartridges-----bad for the consumer because the best economy is in a printer where the user is free to use either OEM cartridges, prefilled thirdparty cartridges, or refill just their own cartridges.
A year ago I bought an Canon ip4000 for my wife----the most economical printer on the market when comparing OEM cartridges to other printers makes using OEM cartridges. For rough estimates see the April/05 consumer reports that list that Canon ip4000 editors choice at $110 street price delivering a OEM ink consumeable cost of three cent per page on B/W text and about eight cents per page mixed text and color---the best HP's and Lexmarks struggled to come in at double that. The best Epsons fall midway in between on economy. And some printers were much much much worse.--beware of $50.00 printers--they tend to rip you off on ink costs.
But the charm of the non-chipped Canons like the ip3000,4000, or ip5000 is that can readily use third party prefilled Cartridges readily available on the internet---for up to a 7x reduction over OEM cartridges. And greater savings can be had refilling with the bonus that
these Canons are bar none the easiest to refill.--anything that uses the Canon BCI-3&6 cartridge line.---and for your low photoprinting needs I would normally recommend the cheapest of the three---the ip3000 at about $80. street price.
But life moves on and these three models are last years models--and getting hard to find--try ebay.------replaced now by chipped Canons with the exception of the ip3000 which has no
chipped replacement.---we are talking the ip4200 and ip5200---with the ip5200 being better at photoprinting and slightly faster. The chips cost you $2.25 more per cartridge but are almost as economical as their non-chipped sucessors-----but you can't use third party prefilled cartridges until such time--if and when a chip resetter comes onto the market. Refilling is still possible using OEM cartridges as the basis but its harder and you lose ink monitoring to boot. But if you plan to use OEM cartridges only---a ip4200 is readily available at about $100. street
But now you complicate things by wanting a multifuntional---whose main charm is saving desktop space---you could get a seperate scanner. But given your budgit things get cramped.
The last of the best non-chipped non-chipped Canon multifuntional is seldom available retail. This week--for the first time in a month and maybe the last time the MP780 is on sale at 200.00 cash and carry at Fry Electronics. Uses the same cartridge line and as the ip4000 but has a scanner and a fax built in----I also bought myself a refurbished MP730 which is a one generation back version of the 780----and its a great machine.---but I'd trade it for a new MP780 in a heartbeat. But thats $50. over budgit.--still your best choice--and you will make it back on the ink.
But if you demand multifuntional and want to stay on budgit--older non-chipped Canons are still the answer----anything based on the ip1500 printer engine is non-chipped and uses the BCI-24 black and tri-color cartridges. Figure OEM vs. OEM consumable costs a lttle more than twice that of something based on the BCI-3&6 cartridges---but pair the ip1500 printer engine with third party prefilled cartridges readily available on the internet at a buck a pop and you can get. some pretty good economy. The models you want to look at on ebay or elsewhere are the MP130, 370, or 390 that has a fax also. You can usually find a MP130 on ebay at $110. shipped or so.----don't have one of these models but from what I have read, the output is very very good for a cheap printer.
But the ip1500 also spons a chipped replacement line of multifuntionals that would be a terrible economy choice----can't use third party cartridges and the small cartridges are bad refill candidates.
HP also has a extensive line of cheap multifuntionals---but nothing I would consider very
good on consumable costs. Maybe not important if your printing volume is low.
Hope that helps.
I have use www.bulkinkjetcarts.com for prefilled cartridges and now refill with a hobbicolor kit.--these are not the only good vendors---but they are well reviewed---for more of this type information check out the nifty stuff forums.
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