Where my money is headed (1). Buying new.

Well, this is for the frugle people (or the poor grad student like me). There are some online stores that are reliable and have great prices.

Use price search engines
This gives an idea on the going prices.

• Pricegrabber my favorite
  
• Froogle

Check if the store is reliable

• Reseller Ratings Search for the store and read customers' reviews. This is invaluable information that only something like the Internet can enable.

Here are the stores I frequent.
They sell almost everything:

• Adorama
  
• B & H Photo
  
• Canoga Cameras
  
• J & R
  
• 17th Street Photo great prices on lenses
  
• Delta International grey market lenses

Filters:

• The Filter Connection
  
• CameraFilters
  
• Camera People

Portable hard drives:

• Power in Numbers
  
• Inside Computer
  
• CompGeeks X's Drive II
  
• My Digital Discount