Have a Canon meself (MP 280) and can't complain about it at all. Also the ink cartridges can be refilled easily without having to resort to the use of chip resetters à la Epson.
Saying that, I do like the Epsons too. The use of separate cartridges for each colour is a good thing as if you use up all of one colour you do not need to replace all 3. Way more economical and, as has been said, the ink is not exactly too expensive. Refilling is an issue, if you like to do that sort of thing.
Under no circumstances should a HP be a option. The amount of crud masquerading as software that they dump on your hard disk is unbelievable.