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@jsabine
If you want light without having to remember about it, there's no question - dynohubs are the way to go. I think they're worth the money without any doubt at all but you're right, you can spend and spend on them.
I went for a Schmidt a long time ago, and it's great - you don't notice it's on. The drag it produces is supposed to be equivalent to something like a seven foot climb over a mile of distance. The Shimanos are more, but even there it's not a lot. (Oh, yes, they all use magnets: that's what produces the drag. Even the oldest Sturmey dynohubs used magnets.)
The older Shimano (Nexus; NX-30) had a poor reputation for drag, but having built a wheel for my ex with one even that seemed to be completely acceptable - the newer ones (Alfine, DH-N70/1/2 and 80) are supposed to be better. There seems to be a new one on the market from Novatec too but apart from following the links above I know very little about that.
The cheapest way to try it at the moment is probably Spa Cycles, who are doing a Novatec-based wheel and light for about £60. Some of the German websites (www.boc24.de and www.rose.de for example) sometimes have dirt-cheap dynohub wheels as well, and they also tend to have good prices on the better hubs.
I'd say the best price point is probably the mid-to-expensive Shimano hubs at probably £60-£80. Once it's built into a wheel, the cost difference over a cheapie isn't so much and the performance is better: the Schmidts are really nicely engineered and will go on for ever, but they are a lot of money unless you can get one secondhand - they do turn up on ebay and can be reasonable.
In terms of lights, B&M are probably the manufacturer to look at. I've just bought a Cyo Senso Plus - again, pretty expensive here but I found a seller on German ebay who was doing them for EUR 50 or 55. OK, that's still not cheap, but they're a good light - same optics and light emitter as the Schmidt Edelux, which is seriously pricy. LED lights are definitely the way to go these days - more efficient, and no bulbs to blow.
If you want to see and/or try a Schmidt with the Cyo, let me know - happy enough to show it off ...