I've been traveling more often recently, plus I've had a lot of gigs that only require up to 3 tracks.  So, I decided I could use a recorder that was smaller and lighter than my 8 track Sound Devices 788T.  I purchased a Sound Devices MixPre-3, an Orca OR-27 bag, and an additional Tentacle Sync-E timecode box.  The result is a much smaller and light weight recording rig that has industry leading Sound Devices quality sound with timecode capability that will run for a REALLY long time on a single NP-1 battery.  The only down side I've found so far is that the recorder doesn't have a secondary drive for backup recording.  It's not perfect for everything, but it's more than adequate for a lot of things.

As a freelance Production Sound Mixer, one of my keys to success is arriving early to every call time.  The picture above demonstrates one example of why this is a good idea.  On the way to a shoot I accidentally drove over a discarded key chain in the road which punctured my tire.  Fortunately I had some extra time and changing to a spare tire only cost me about 15 minutes and didn't slow the shoot down at all. (And thankfully the repair shop I took it to the next day only charged me about $15 for the patch!)