I have a Rikon 12x16, and now it has a 24" extension, but the basic setup is pretty similar to your lathe. I bought a Nova G3 before the lathe (on sale, and I was waiting for the lathe to go on ale), then a 1/2" drill chuck, then a 5/8" keyless drill chuck (really overkill, but got it dirt cheap ...), I have an 8mm keyless chuck that is drilled thru for a pen mandrel, and I use it for center drilling blanks as well as for pen turning on the mandrel. Most recently I bought the Nova Mini since it was on sale for $125 at Woodcraft, and had a boxed set of 5 jaws thrown in for free (plus it came with a set of jaws ). It is nice to have an extra scroll chuck, since I keep one set of long pin jaws on the G3 currently for drilling pen blanks.
I'm planning on getting a Beall collet chuck before too long. You just cannot have too many chucks and jaws for a lathe!
In summary, I have no idea what to recommend for your first chuck.
I just bought the Oneway Talon with the standard jaws and added the spigot jaws for holding pen blanks and bottle stoppers. I liked the way the key chuck fit in nice and secure with no fuse. It was a toss up between it and the Nova G3.
I've got a Nova mini chuck that I'm probably going to sell.