Hi Fred
I don't use the colour laser for "real" photos. I only use it for the family snaps that arrive as email attachments. I group them together and print them 6 to a page to show around then they get trashed. The 200 page manuals I print are only manuals and relatively low res (150 dpi). The manuals incidently have been out of print up to 100 years and also out of copyright. I did a 1910 one at 300 dpi from restored pages that came out better than the master I had scanned.
The real photos I have done have been things like touched up wedding and graduation photos that needed to be restored as close to new as possible. Some of these take 3 or 4 goes to get acceptable results.
I get good astro photos from Trevor when he does them properly. So that doesn't cost me! (other than helping to finance his other astronomical projects).
Barry