Hi. I only have experience with one small field recorder, but it's taken an amazing amount of abuse for the last 4 years recording everything from live gigs to nature sounds and still works faultlessly every time, so I'll tell you a bit about it. It's the Edirol R-09, and in case you have difficulty finding it now that's because Edirol used to be a brand owned by Roland, but now Roland have done away with the "Edirol" brand completely and put their own name on it instead. I believe the current version is called the Roland R-09 HR and can record at up to 24bit 96kHz, whereas my model only goes up to 24bit 48kHz, although it will play and record at virtually any .wav (eg 16 / 44.1) or mp3 bit rate. For the mp3 formats it will record in numerous bitrates including massively compressed formats to allow many hours of recordings on a 1 or 2GB SD card. However, in the last year or 2 they brought out a new firmware for the Edirol R-09 which allows it to use SDHC cards of up to 16GB, so there's no longer any need to use anything other than the highest quality pcm .wav formats.
The Edirol R-09 can record from line or mic sources (there's a mini-jack for each), with a small recessed switch on the back to tell it whether you're using mono or stereo. It can supply PIP power for compatible mic's, but does not supply 48V phantom power, so I use Rode NT3 or NT4 mic's which have their own onboard power supply (a single 9V battery). It has 2 onboard mic's which are surprisingly good - as long as you're not handling it - in which case it picks up a lot of contact noise. I take a soft fleece glove with me when I'm using it as a standalone recorder so to minimize the noise, and enable me to sit the recorder on the glove on top of a wall, stone, the ground, etc. I believe the new version has a case which includes a tripod mount, and a windshield and a remote control are also available.
The Edirol R-09 takes 2 "AA" batteries, either Alkaline or NiMH (specify which in the user-friendly menu system which also allows control of recording format, Time and Date functions, Delete, etc). Another switch on the back shifts between Low or High Gain although I find it's best to always use Low Gain and boost the signal in the computer because as soon as you switch to High Gain it introduces a lot of noise. There's also Automatic Gain Control, and Low Cut. There's a 9V DC power-in socket ( it comes with an AC power adapter) and a mini-B type USB socket for transferring data although the USB does not power it, so they recommend always using the power adapter while transferring files to computer.
I think that covers pretty much everything. Hope it helps.
