I recently picked up a Canon PIXMA iP4000. With a discount, I got it for around $140. You can get it a little cheaper online, but I wanted the ability to return....a must w/ printers. The picture quality with this thing is amazing. Depending on the source picture, it's hard to distinguish it from what you get from your local developer, etc. It can whip out a 8X10 borderless and leave you wondering how you can get that quality from a simple 'printer'.....a long way from my old HP Deskjet from years ago. Plus, it dual has feed (base tray and top-load). It also has a novel ability to print on both sides of the paper in one printing....just sucks it back in and prints on the other side. Haven't used this feature, but it might be useful for printing text on the pack of a picture. It requires special paper for that.
I was looking closely at the competitive Epsons, as well as the lower model PIXMAs. In the case of the Canons, the lower models don't have separate blacks for photo and text. Plus, the 4000 just looks slicker than the 3000, which was pretty close in price w/ the discount I was getting. The Epsons put out a good picture, as well. However, what put me over the top in favor of the Canon was the speed at which the thing prints. With normal documents and low-res pics, it's fast. If you read the reviews out there, speed is one of their selling points right now. Take that, along w/ the wonderful picture quality, and you have yourself a great photo printer.
FYI...I also have a Kodak printer for my camera that does 4X6 only. The picture quality on this is generally superior to the Canon, but that's to be expected from a dedicated photo printer that uses a totally different technology (dye sublimation) for printing.
Good Luck
