can't get newer than the iP4300 - not even in many stores yet. MFC-640 was intro'd in the last 6 mo. Older series Brothers are black-flagged!
There are others: Epsons have a severe clogging problem in low duty cycle locations (like home use) - but you can get cheap clone carts - for now (search tech news for reason - "Epson cracking down on cart cloners". HP are generally difficult to refill - moreso than the new Canons - refurb and OEM carts expensive and they use "Starter Cartridges" in lower end models. And Lexmark - well the less said the better. their ink jets may be taken as black-flagged too.
All the others but Canon and Brother had been sucking the ink cartridge teat REALLY HARD. Canon and Brother were the only holdouts - now Canon has gone over to the "dark side". So Brother is the only white Jedi knight left, if only it's print quality was better...
HP came out with a passive, separate tank printer this year - I think it's the K500. But it's for high-volume (in ink-jet terms that means around 7000 sheets per mo.) office use and it's photo print quality isn't that good. There are several reviews of it out there if you care to check it out. Typical selling price is around $200. and I think Swiftink.com (Official Ink Supplier to Anandtech) has clone tanks for it too.
All-in-all, and as L-L said, the first series of Canon Pixma printers and AIOs that came out in late summer/early fall 2004 (or earlier ones yet like the i560 or i860) are the cheapest to operate, with the least hassle involved in refilling or finding clone ink tanks. Not hard to find bottom-end 3e and 6 series tanks that they use for around $1. each. Top quality ones are under $4. each. They have user-replaceable print heads too, to keep the output looking good. You'll have to work it to find a good specimen of one of those now. Good used ones can go for more than what their new series equivalents typically go for when not on sale.
I've got an iP3000 that I've used since late 2004, that would easily bring over $100. on eBay - go and look. They've got some new-in-box ones that are pushing toward $150. bid and the used ones I saw with short time left were over $100.. The iP3000 had an MSRP of $99.95 toward the end of the model run, and typically sold for $80 or less when new. I think I bought mine for under $70. on special. You can just about name your price if you're willing to part with an iP4000 or 5000. Owning this series might be better than owning real estate - at least for short-term appreciation. What I could do with a storage unit full of iP4000s and iP5000s now...
$20 for a set of 5 top clone tanks vs nearly $80 some places for a set of 5 OEM tanks for the current models. Like I said, they'll pay the investment back reasonably quickly almost regardless of the purchase price. Besides they hardly ever clog or jam. Dual paper paths - stock two types of paper at a time. Auto-duplexing that is useful for short runs. Just excellent. Nothing else on the current market can touch them for overall quality and value.
Come back to the force, Dart... er, Canon! Return to the force before it's too late.
.bh.
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