I have the canon pixma pro9500 and it is freaking awesome to say the least! I work off a calibrated monitor and with the printer profiles, so I'm good to go. I've only gotten prints done from 2 pro labs, and they are close to the ones I print, but they do lost less to have them print than if I print myself.
Thats a $600 investment before you get your first 8X10 out, not including ink and paper. I wonder how many 8X10s I could get at a pro lab before I would have paid off the printer?
Not saying the 9500 isn't a good printer, but you'd better be an avid user who prints more than average before it pays itself off. For me, the calculation would be around 480-490 prints. If I print out 50 shots a year, thats a lot, so that printer had better last me at least 9 years for me to break even... lol
In my case, I'm better off even paying 25%-50% more for prints than investing in a quality printer like yours.