Best place I found to get CI skillets is on Ebay. You can find Griswold pans there cheap. And they are much lighter, have a superior cooking surface, and perform better than Lodge pans, IMHO. You can also find them cheap in garage sales.
My smallest Griswold pan is just big enough to cook two fried eggs. I rub a little butter on the pan when it's hot, and the eggs just slide around on it with no effort. The downside, it's hard to get a spatula under it to flip as the eggs just push across the pan. So I hand flip them using the pan. The pan weighs less than a pound. Stainless steel, if you get it hot, then add oil, food slides across it too. But it is just a little more difficult to clean than CI as you have to wash it with a damp sponge and soap.
Fact is, if you learn how to use them properly, most metal pans are fairly non-stick. You just need to have them seasoned, or heat them before adding the cooking fat.
CI is great for frying things because of its thermal mass. But it can have hot spots. SS usually has some time of encapsulated heat diffusing metal built in to eliminate hot spots. But you have to use them right, or things stick like crazy. Even aluminum is stick free if you season it as you would cast iron.
The choice is up to you, and what you like to use. The one thing I know is that I don't like to use non-stick cookwear.
Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
