Josh, I was in your position a year or so ago (when unfortunately the choice of printers wasn't as good), so I decided to test the waters and learn the craft by buying the cheap R800 - prints A4 size max, and has the gloss optimiser so produces very nice glossy prints (I know you don't like those!). Colur profiling the thing proved to be a challenge, as did learning how to overcome it's limitations in the low-value browns and greens, but now I get prints from it that greatly surpass anything I ever did in the darkroom (and I spent years in the bloody place). The point of this is, the only way forward now is to print your own images, and I assure you that once you get through the learning curve for your chosen printer, you'll never look back.
The R800 and the A3 R1800 take 4x6" paper, and that's the majority of what I print (not for art, but it's what most folk want). I'll buy a larger format printer when the Epson / HP question gets clearer (Epson does poor glossy prints, HP dye printer has inferior B&W and print robustness). If matt is what you want, the Epson is the way to go. Once you see what quality you can print (and with the resolution of the 5D), you'll inevitably want to go a bit bigger that the 2400 will allow - you won't want to send them out. If I shared your criteria, I'd go for the 4800 and buy a decent rotary trimmer for the small pics.
