How does it print things that aren't photos?
If you have a page with various blocks of color, does it print correctly or is everything still blue?
I agree that having to drop cyan to nothing is really odd.
I have an HP Photosmart 8250 that I really love. (as much as HP has gone downhill in recent years, I'll still recommend it.) Ink is individual cartridges (instead of all color in one cart.)
I can buy ink and get some photo paper for it for about $40 total.