I was looking for something that had good consumable costs, printed quality text and graphics, and could do photos reasonably well when I didn't need perfect photo quality

I wanted a more cost efficient printer than my every day three in one, ink jet, however, there are many days I’d prefer to go back to ‘ol trusty

I bought four high capacity cartridges (one in each color) and even with the discounts that Cannon gave me, their combined cost exceeded the cost of the printer by over 100%!!!

In the end I decided that (a) Only about 16% of the reviews were negative, (b) there was not a single compelling complaint theme running through the negative reviews, (c) it was worth risking $350 in the hopes of avoiding a $1000 and up expenditure for a more commercial printer.