I agree with Mr. Rogan -- it needs the buttons, or else it's a waste of time. Let's remember what we're talking about here -- we're talking about shooting an all-day, hand-held job in a full-page-vertical format. So for me, I would need all the usability of the normal grip, with all the buttons. We are talking about something with the Hasselblad nameplate on it -- it should work, and it should work well. It should not be some afterthought. Although, I could argue that back in the initial design of the H body, that, at that point, it was an afterthought, and now, here we are at the H4 iteration of the camera, and we're talking about getting out some duct tape and bubble gum, and trying to cobble something together for professional hard use on current cameras.
I could argue that the entire camera is now due for an overhaul, and these forgotten features should now be incorporated into a new camera body design -- at least the grip area. A true overhaul would warrant a Countdown Clock. Leave everything else alone (and make sure and don't mess with the rugged pop-up Flash Unit that's in the Viewfinder). I read a story last night and when you read the details of the story, I realized that yes, that Pop Up flash truly does have some usefulness, even down to saving a man's life:
http://tinyurl.com/ycr9gcsHaving said all this, I'd imagine that if a Vertical Grip could in fact be fashioned now, to fit on the current H models, it would need to sell for $2500-$3500, and if I still owned an H system, I'd gladly pay that.
I also could imagine a truly portable, DSLR-competing camera being introduced that was much faster on its feet, being thought of as more of a Unibody, where the back was not removable at all. This would be something like I drew and posted yesterday; the Vertical Grip would be unibody and not removeable. If that was the case, the buttons could be moved off the back itself, and moved onto the rear of the camera body. There would be no need, in this particular model, to remove it for view camera use, because this model is more like a DSLR -- grab it and go, and shoot all day, but with all the nice Hasselblad lenses and the CCD chip, (and the pop-up flash).
Or, better yet, come up with a FF square chip, stick it on a 500 or 200, and all this talk is for moot -- those current body designs would work just fine.
