I was wondering what are the recommendations for a portable mixer with balanced in/out put, phantom power, fader, and reliable for a lot of moving from location shoot to location shoot, and that wont break the bank.

Thanks

When you say "portable", do you mean transportable or does it need to have battery power?

My vote would be one of the Sound Devices. There are 3 different levels and they're all rock solid. I own a Mix Pre and a 302, they're the best bang for the buck out there.

http://www.sounddevices.com/products/index.html#field

At $665, $1200 and $2500 their pretty well best at their respective levels. (2, 3 and 4 input) They're small and light yet built like a tank and fully funvctional.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?A=search&Q=&b=1556&shs=&ci=4962&ac=&Submit.x=14&Submit.y=9

The PSC is worth a look, they have a nice entry level unit at $500. For pricing look at the link from B&H and select PSC from the drop down list.
http://www.professionalsound.com/Catalog.htm

Samsom and Rolls have some lower priced units that hold up quite well. They lack the portability, features and build of the Sound Devices and PSC but still offer good value.

I wouldn't bother with Shure since the FP24 is the Sound devices Mix Pre relabled. The management and engineering staff at Sound devices are all ex Shure people.

Wendt and cooper are good but more pricey.

Beach Tek will be coming out with a 2 channel mixer at around the $360 mark in the very near future

dv.com has several reviews so have a look over there.

http://www.dv.com/reviews/reviews_item.jhtml?category=Archive&LookupId=/xml/review/garrett1203

http://www.dv.com/reviews/reviews_item.jhtml?category=Archive&LookupId=/xml/review/rose1103_rev

You could always have a look at RAMPS. Do a search, this is one of the greatest resources available in audio production.

http://groups.google.com/groups?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=rec.arts.movies.production.sound+&btnG=Search

It need to be small and light enough to be transportable whether battery powered or not.

Are you meaning field mixer though? Or are you also looking at studio type mixers that while not tiny like the sound devices, are still small enough to move around. They tend to have lots of I/O channels, master fader and all that stuff? Items like the Mackie 10, 12 and 14VLZ's seems pretty good at that.

Aaron

<<<-- Originally posted by Dwight Flynn : It need to be small and light enough to be transportable whether battery powered or not. -->>>

Could you be a little more detailed. Did any of those mixers i mentioned "float your boat"

Aaron, I do mean a field mixer (not studio they are generally too large). And Bryan your suggestions were great but I have to stay at about the $500 range for the unit (strict budget).

Thanks

Dwight, the PSC one is about that price at B&H (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=300798&is=REG)

Aaron

The PSC is $495 at B&H. Read the review links I gave you for DV.com or wait a few weeks and buy the Beach Tek. if the construction is anything like the DXA-8 it'll be a nice unit for about $360.

I think I will wait for the beach tek. But in the mean time I will look to see what prices I can get some of the others for.

Thanks