Cheap printer ink: Worth it or bad investment?

Last month I looked into toner for my cheap Samsung laser printer and was shocked to see price quotes well over $100 for a simple black cartridge. (The printer itself costs only $160.)

Expensive printer ink has long been one of the biggest tech scams running. (The Register long ago noted it was seven times more expensive per milliliter than Dom Perignon champagne.) Fortunately, third-party vendors have come to the resuce with offers of private-labeled ink and toner, often for half the price of an "official" cartridge offered directly from the company. But, as expected, the printer manufacturers have fired back, claiming that off-brand toner and ink isn't as good as what you can get from the manufacturer. In at least one case, a company sued an off-brand cartridge maker to try to stop them from manufacturing cartridges, citng the DMCA. (On appeal, the cartridge maker won.)

Legalities aside, the question remains: Is off-brand ink really as good as that put out by HP, Epson, Canon, and the like? I ended up saving $60 on the price of a printer cartridge, but if the quality is going to be worse, is it really worth it? That's an especially important question if you're printing color photos instead of simple B&W paperwork.