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After reading mostly positive reviews, I bought the Canon Pixma MX870. I picked it up on sale for $150. It has a few performance drawbacks, but overall it's a fantastic all-in-one for the money. Everything I've printed, including photos, has been great. It's definitely one I would recommend to others. It's my first Canon printer, and I couldn't be happier.

Brother MFC-465 or -490 or -495. (Print/Scan/Copy/Fax) All work great with a Mac (or PC). Scanning is done either through Brother's app or right from within Preview. Lots of control over printing choices. For a four-color (separate cartridges) printer, printing on photo paper is amazing; many people can't believe the prints didn't come from a seven-color "photo printer". Faxing works fine (but that should be a no-brainer). Look around and you can find one of these printers for around $110-130. Compatible cartridges (LC-51 for the -465, LC-61 for the -490, -495) are cheap (Databazaar sells good ones).

Rumplestilskin is right. Any list of the best bargain printers should include some from Brother. They're not as pretty as their competition, but they are real workhorses. I'm quite happy with the cost of ownership for those I have.

I agree with the previous two posts--Brother is top of my list for bargain printers. This is primarily because of the ease of finding third party cartridges or ink refilling systems. Epson is the worst, because the printers stop working with third party ink systems and rather surly service reps in my experience. Canon printers are OK and allow non-Canon cartridges. I swear I will never buy another Epson.

hinkelman, on 04 January 2011 - 03:49 AM, said:

This comment is based on my experience with the Canon MP 490 (a earlier model I suppose than the MP 495) which I got for $70.

redgeminipa, on 31 December 2010 - 09:11 AM, said:

Wait until you have to buy ink. I have the MX860. I used 3rd party inks for a while and they worked well. Then the company from which I was purchasing stopped producing them. So, I bought from another. The chips don't work in the other ink. It looks like I have to go back to the insanely high priced canon branded ink.