It seems like they're all really expensive, with most halfway decent ones being over $1000. It also seems like they're really finicky and hard to get working consistently.
Are there any 3d printers that are actually a refined product, something you can just get and start using? I don't want to spend most of my time fiddling with the settings and having to buy a ton of upgrades in the hopes of getting it to be a functional machine that can actually be used to print out parts.
If there are any out there that are basically self-maintaining or highly automated in terms of configuring themselves correctly, is it only the really expensive ones, or are there more affordable sort of "get and forget" printers that you can just set up and start using?
my opinion: you probably won't like the amount of fiddling of any FDM printer, even rock solid ones with autolevelling, you end up having to fiddle with slicer settings to optimize for speed, quality, printing overhangs or weird geometry, strength, whatever.
Are the resin ones any better?
Resin with lycheeslicer is incredibly simple, much less tinkering. Messy because you need to do the whole wash and cure thing, but the slicer has a "magic wand" button that never fails me. I leveled my Saturn once when I bought it, and haven't had to do any tinkering since.
But fdm and resin printing kinda have different purposes. I use fdm for functional stuff (plastic strong), and resin for dnd minis (resin pretty).
Resin printing is awesome, I just grabbed an Elegoo Saturn 3 on ebay used for $150 and the level of detail it can produce is incredible. One thing to always keep in mind is that the resin in its uncured state is highly toxic and you'll need gloves and a good respirator anytime you're in your printing space, which should vent outside somehow (a small grow tent and 4 inch fan will work well for this) You may also want to get a wash and cure station, but on a tighter budget you can get by with a mason jar full of alcohol and set parts out in the sun to cure for several hours.
You can also get water washable resins too now. I've been playing with a bottle of it recently and I'm struggling to notice the difference between it and the alcohol washable ones.
I have no personal experience to speak from, but I've heard that aside from a couple very expensive resins like Wargamer, the water washable resins tend to be very brittle so I've avoided them so far.
I mostly use Sunlu ABS-Like. I can get it for $18/kg and it's easily the best ABS-like I've tried. Going to buy a bottle of SirayaTech Tenacious soon too to mix a little bit in with my regular resin (9 parts ABS, 1 part Tenacious) which should make my minis nearly indestructible without any noticeable detail loss.
I don't have hands on experience but it seems mostly more straightforward yes. More steps in terms of like, washing and UV curing, and the resin is toxic (I hadn't heard of people using a full respirator for one but I assume ComradeRed knows what they're talking about), but less fiddling. And resin printers tend to be on the small side, so great for minifigs, or medium sized stuff if you pay a bit more, but not great for large objects (those take forever on FDM but are at least possible for cheap.)