I'm curious. What did you decide to do? Post a photo, please?

@mindshift: We have decided on going with paint. I did a lot of research. And it comes down to the look you want, the wood you use, weather etc. Since we wanted a clean look with little grains showing we went with pain. We also used redwood clear select for our fencing .This is NOT premier high end wood ( like IPE or Managris or Mahagony) and I did not think a dark stain would hold well on it and paint would be a good cover up. If I was not fixated on a black fence I would have stained it clear and gone for the premium quality wood and let the wood do all the talking :-) Also weather here ( Northern California) is decent for painted fences.

Thank you for the reply.