Photo printers seem to divide into classes by the maximum print width. 8.5 in, 13 in. 17 in, 24 in. and gynormous. The 24in. and up classes are all above $2000 so they're way out of the budget. The little printers do a really fine job at 4x6 to 8x10 size prints, but that seems a little small, though the 'under $200' is nicely proportional. The operating expenses don't seem to stay small though. Especially when calculated on a per-sq.in. basis.
Point of comparison: The local photo lab does very nice quality prints up to a maximum of 24x96in at basically $10/sq.ft. That would eat up the budget quick.
So, I'm going to focus on the 13in. and 17in. width printers. Canon and HP have some nice ones between $600-800. Epson makes the R1800/R1900 13incher for around $500. They all have pretty small ink tanks though which seems to really impact the operating costs. Still looking.
[Edit] Found a refurb Epson 3800 (17in. 9-ink, 3-level black for nice B&W) for under $1000 and it comes with $450 worth of new ink carts. Puts it right in the same (effective) price range as the R1800/1900 13in. printers but with out the ink-swapping and small ink tanks and iffy B&W prints. Pretty compelling
Yeah it's kinda big, but when everything is folded down it's not so bad. Besides I have a nice space for it.
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