I've been poking around looking at function generators as well. With all the good things said about Instek's 1003 it's been a shoe-in for me for a while. I looked into some of the upgraded models and I realized that I've got no real idea what the relative value is like compared to other manufacturers.
My criteria are a bit fuzzy because I'm not sure what I'll wind up tinkering with, so I'm trying to keep my parameters general.
Arbitrary generation - Probably not worth the cost for me, at least not that I can think of.
Counter - Useful, but not essential. See Stability.
Stability - Very important. Would love to have a 10MHz input on the thing in case I get a GPS reference later. Someday I'd like to work with RF on things where it might actually matter.
Modulation - May come in handy for RF and poor man's sweeping for filters.
Sweeps - Useful for helping me characterize filters and transformers (audio for now, RF someday if I get an analyzer better than a soundcard) and perhaps dinking with SMPS.
I started out by using the SFG-2110 (
here's the link on tequipment), which seems to have much the same basic specs. It's hard for me to determine if the extra 7MHz, counter, modulation, and sweep are worth the extra $225US, but I think it might for my purposes. I don't come across sums of money like that often enough to take any chances on ebay, so I'm trying to stick to new equipment.
My question is, does the SFG-2110 look like a good deal for the money? It's just not from a price bracket I'm familiar with, so I figured I'd see if anyone knew if there was something else around $400US that would beat the socks off of it before I settle on saving up.