Question:
Does anyone have experience with the portable water purificationsystems for backpacking or camping as an alternative to the tables?If so what brand do you recommend?

Answer: if you dont mind a slight iodine taste use polar pureit in a bottle with iodine crystills you fill with water and let soakusaly since last time you used it then put one capfull of liquede in onequart butt dont let the crystals fall out of the bottlekills every thing better then any filterbutt muddy watter dosnt look good so use clean stream watter

I have experience with:

Polar Pure -- worked well...

First Need Filters -- worked well, though a bit bulky/"clunky" topack... some trouble with clogging, but then again we hadadjudicated teens using them in muddy streams...

Pur Scout -- worked great, it had the "acorn" pre-filter and the carbonfinish filter...