Scanners:
I usually reccomend Epson, either the Perfection 1650 Photo (1600x3200DPI with a 35mm slide/neg adapter built in), or the Perfection 2450 Photo which (uses FireWire, 2400x4800 and built in slide/neg adapter, can scan up to 4"x9" transparancy).
The 1650 is around 330$ and the 2450 is around around double that give or take.
Printers:
Epson (yeah, I am not biased, really) makes the best printers for photos in my opinion. There is the Stylus Photo 820 for about 150$, which does 2880x1440 DPI, and has 6 colours. Also, the Stylus C80, which is the same resolution, but only has four colours. The C80 has individually replacable cartridges though, which really cuts down on long term cost, and also uses pigment based archival ink so your photos will last signifigantly longer..
The ultimate right now is probably the Stylus Photo 2200 mentioned above. Not sure how much it goes for.
HP also makes a few good models. There is the Deskjet 940 and 960, both of which are the same resolution (1200x2400DPI). The 940 is cheaper at 250$, but the 960 uses better cartridges (about 2x as much ink for the same price as the 940 cartridges) and prints faster. Both of these are photoquality. There is also the Photosmart line of HPs, the current models being the 1215 and 1315. They can both print fast and good, and read directly from CompactFlash, Smart Media and Memory stick. The 1315 also has a 2" LCD screen (which is higher resolution than any of the high end Palm devices) which you can use to preview and do some basic editing on photos when printing direct from memory cards.
Canon has some sweet printers, the S750 and S820 both have individual ink wells, both photo quality, both fast. The 750 has 4 colours, the 820 has 6. The 820 is VERY fast, it can do an 8.5"x11" photo in 2 minutes flat.
CD-RWs:
The TDK VeloCD is not currently available in Canada (at least it wasnt available to my distributors when I checked a few months ago.), but the full range of LaCie and QPS drives are. For a FW drive you will be spending around 300$ and up.
There is also a Yamaha 20x writer, which comes with Nero and is Disc Burner Supported.
From my experience with the printers I would say that the Stylus Photo 820 is probably the best value because it is so cheap now, but the HP 960 is a very nice deal as well. The Photosmart 1315 has a definite cool factor, but it is the same quality as the 960, and costs 350$ more.
I havent gotten my hands on an 2200 Epson yet, but it looks very nice. The Canon S820 is probably the nicest printer that my store keeps in stock, but it is a little pricey at 500$.
The Epson 1650 scanner is a very good deal, it recently dropped in price by 50$.
It has OS 9 Drivers but not X, but then again, no scanners have propor drivers for X yet.
For CDRW drives, check out the
list of compatible drives for a better idea what works. I have heard some good reports about both the QPS drives and the LaCie drives, but I dont have any hands on experience with either. In any event, get one that is Disc Burner compatible, and then get a copy of Toast Titanium.
Hope this helps some, feel free to ask for more specifics.
--PB