Hi Paul,
It really depends upon what your goals are: convenience, quality, economy, or a combination of the three? My personal goals are quality first above all else, then convenience, then economy.
I use a Canon iPF6100 large format inkjet printer that takes rolls (or sheets) of paper up to 24 inches wide, and has 12 tanks of 130 mL inks (= 1560 L of ink... most cheap home ink jets might have about 80 mL in total).
This is pretty much what you get from pro labs that produce "fine art" prints via inkjet - they're pigment inks and are considered archival quality (supposedly up to 100-200 years with proper storage).
Have a look at the photos of the prints in this review of that printer:
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/r.../ipf_6100.html
I've measured my average consumable cost to be about $2.50 per square foot (30x30 cm) - which includes ink ($1/sq ft), high quality fine art paper ($1.25/sq ft), and amortised printer maintenance ($0.25/sq ft for print heads, ink used in cleaning, etc). This is about 25% - 30% of what it would cost me at a typical pro lab - but only if the print volume is reasonably large.
Overall, I'm very happy I decided to print at home. I get virtually instant feedback (think of film vs digital - but in reverse) so I can experiment with processing techniques and see the effect within minutes. Since it's so cheap for me (< $4 for a 12x18 print) if a print doesn't work for any reason, I happily bin it without further thought and fix it. The look on people's faces when they see the quality (and sheer quantity) of the prints is fantastic
Main things to take note:
* Post-process your photos with an appropriately calibrated monitor with the right white balance and brightness for your target viewing conditions.
* Home inkjet printing is extremely expensive on a "cost per printed area" basis if you don't do print a lot using a large format printer.
* Convenience with home printing is unbeatable - from waking up the inkjet to being fully packed up, a 24x36 inch print takes me less than half an hour.
* Laser printer quality isn't comparable to ink jets... but they're really fast and really cheap (for what you get). On my colour laser, it takes about 30-45 seconds to go from sleep mode to finish printing an A4 page in full colour for less than $1. I use it for proofing and for making quick and dirty prints for the family fridge, etc.
* High quality inkjet prints at home are a lot of work - if you want quality, you pretty much need to treat "photo printing" as a hobby in its own right (i.e. dedicate the time to learn and practice). It's NOT a simple matter of "photo goes in, perfect print comes out"!
* A "good" print depends upon having a good source photo, the right processing, a good choice of paper, proper sealing and mounting, appropriate viewing conditions (lighting, location, viewer distance), etc. Think of the difference between studio lighting versus normal room lighting - there's also a big difference in viewing prints.
* Printer maintenance and ICC colour profiles have a huge effect on quality - that's why low-end stores with high-end equipment still produce bad prints. For example, when I first started printing I discovered that everything below RGB value 40 was being rendered as pure black (everything else looked good, though). It turned out to be a bad profile combined with the wrong ink saturation setting on the printer... resulting in a loss of 16% of the number of shades of grey I could print at!
Anyway, I hope this gives a bit of insight... feel free to ask away if I can answer any questions
Dave
