I think this thread may be dead but i thought I'd share my views and may give some members some ideas.
You can either go through all of the stoves yourself and finally settle on what you want or decide what you need to cook, weight limit you'd like then do the reasearch, and advice bit. The second way if far easier and cheaper! A couple of things to remember - The camping gaz 'bluet' type stoves were made by Calor's offshoot - camping gaz. They made the non-resealable cartridges as they were the cheapest to make with maximum profit for the company. The stoves that ran on them were designed more for the cartridge than for practically, so we ended up with heavy unstable stoves. Time has moved on and the re-sealable cartridges we have now are the best option without doubt for a gas user. You have 2 main options now, contained cooking kit or just burner head. By contained i mean things like the jetboil/Primus ETA. Brilliant at what they are. A fast water boiler. If your camp cooking requires no more than boiling water then these are ace. A burner head however gives you far more cooking options. These simply screw onto your cartridge. I guess the most well known benchmark is MSR's Pocket Rocket or Colemans F1. You can choose from any number of copies from as little as a tenner but these won't be anywhere near as good as the PR/F1/Primus. The compaies did all the research and design and tested materials etc etc, then it gets copied and folks expect the same perfomance from the copies only to be dissapointed. Remember the old saying - buy cheap=buy twice.... With a burner heads look for an established brand. MSR, Coleman and Primus know their stuff obviously and thier offerings are similar in features and performance. The problem you have with burner heads, you now have to decide on cookware. again you get what you pay for. Primus and MSR both do stacking pan sets that are great. This is where you have to be inventive with your camp cooking! I like to empty a tin of pie filling/stewing steak into a ziplok baggie and using a pan of boiling water on the burner, stand the meat/gravy pan onto of the boiling water. This will heat it for eating and the boiling water can then be used for instant mashed potato/noodles etc. You have to plan your grub before you go! A better option than pan stacking is a suplimentry cooker - the meths burner. Cook on gas while your water boils on the meths and far more meal options become clear. You don't have to buy a trianga kit either - look for the meths stove thread on OM and make one for nothing! Fuel is pennies and the burner weighs nowt! Plus with this appraoch you are covered should one cooker fail/run out of fuel. For car camping, that is, pull up in the car and camp... Weight isn't an issue anymore. I have a coleman petrol single burner (Peak 1?) I've had it for 15 years and it still performs perfectly. Fuel is cheap and available anywhere. I once pulled off the fuel pipe of my car to fill a glass bottle in order to fill the stove. Never use a cooker in a tent though especially petrol. Petrol not only gives off carbon monoxide when burning but flares up dramatically when first lit. The heat from this flare up helps to vapourise the fuel, there isn't a fault, its just designed to work like that. (Think of the choke on a car - petrol needs a helping hand till its at working temp) I also have a camping gaz camp kitchen. These are real value for money after the initial outlay. 2 burners and a grill, integral stand and includes a gas connector and carry bag. You can get these for 50 odd quid. Then you need your bottle - 40 odd quid at first but once bought they are 16 quid for re-fills. They last a long time too, I find 6 or 8 weekends away with hungry kids requires just the one bottle!
One last thing - gas cartridges - have a big screw one for car camping - 500gm size. It'll live in the boot of the car so you don't have to carry it and it works out massivly cheaper than the little ones. Also have a roll of red and black tape in your camping box in the shed too. When you buy your 125gm canisters, screw it on the burner, turn on and light it - you need to know it actually works! Many folks have been sold faulty carts! Once tested, cover the screw cap with a bit of black tape - you know its full and has been tested. After a night out, when you pack away, put a bit of red tape on the screw top. You now know its been used. I tend to use up these half full ones on fishing trips, days walks etc Unless you are a smoker and have lots of lighters, have your main lighter and some form of back-up. Some stoves have built in pezio lighters, have a lighter handy for when this fails - it will! In your fist aid kit, have 1/2 dozen matches that have had their heads dipped in candle wax to keep them dry. A fire steel will never let you down either as long as you don't lose it!
(coleman do a great mini lantern than runs on the screw tops, all metal too so no glass globes to break!)
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