And.. I'll bring my voice over to the Canon side.. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the majority of canon printers.. especially the i960 and i9900. They are both one of the highest rated printers on the market and I have had 0 problems with them over the years.. I use mine regularly to produce stunning prints. They don't clog and the ink carts are quite cheap and reasonable..

On the bad side.. all the printers discussed here have a limited lifespan for their prints. Since they are all dye inks, most will fade over time. Given scrapers typically put their prints in archival albums kept in the dark, this isn't as much of a problem and the prints will last longer. However, you will most likely use the printer for toher things like prints to display.. this could lead to faded prints.

Personally, I use my Canon dye printers for personal items that I can easily reprint if they do fade. The i960 churns out 100s of notecards for me each month. For prints that are going to customers from photo shoots.. I use a professional service like WHCC or MPIX. They are printed on professional equip with 200 year ratings... and the prices are very very reasonsable.

Oh.. and you can get a i960 for around $150 if you look around.. the i9900 (wide carriage for those 12x12 jobs) goes for outside your range.. $399. i960 will do a great job.. I love mine!