Digital BW, The Print

Hi. This is my first time posting a question to this group. I've
searched past messages and I have not seen this addressed in any detail.

Film photography is a hobby I picked up a year ago. Budget very
limited. I don't have the facilities to set up for silver printing,
and I'd like to experiment with high-quality inkjet carbon printing,
both black-only and quadtone, and it looks like the Epson/MIS route
offers the biggest bang for the buck. My Canon i550, while a great
general-purpose printer, is not that great for photos, and as far as I
can tell has limited black-only capability. Shopping around,
refurbished R200's are $60 at the Epson store, but I can also find new
R220's for about $35 more. Mr. Roark mentioned in passing that the
R220 drivers are significantly improved over the R200's.

So just to clarify, can I assume:

1. The R220 is worth the extra $35, particularly for B&W.
2. One cannot use R220 drivers with the R200 printer.

I'm shooting 35mm B&W film, developing it in the bathroom, and
scanning with a Canoscan 8400f. Quality is acceptable for my current
purposes and tastes, except for print output, which is a class below
the results I've gotten in the past from an Epson 6-ink RX600. In a
year of trying I have not been able to produce a presentation-quality
photo print with the i550.

Any advice or comments would be appreciated.

- Bob Lee