Portability of the Phase One H20

[PhilipWatkins]

I have the opportunity to acquire a Phase One H20 digital back for a reasonable price to use with my Rollei 6008, as my first step into medium format digital.  Most of my photography is outdoors (landscape).

I note that this back has no viewing screen, but it does have a Firewire/IEEE 1394 interface.  Is it possible that the latter interface can be used to connect to a small portable device (preferably smaller than a laptop) out in the field, rather than having to connect to PC located in a studio ?  If so, is anyone using the H20 like this and how portable is the solution ?

[Peter Devos]

Problem is you need or a portable unit, that was a small portable with a battery belt, or a Mac laptop. An other solution is a Imacon Ixpress 22Mp back wich already has a small hard disk with battery. But, yes an Imacon costs about 3500 euro. But this back does have 22Mp, does have a screen and can be used on all possible MF cameras via an adapterplate.

[marcman]

A laptop with a powered firewire 400 port will work. I use a regular old white Macbook (4,1). At the studio we use the old Macbook Pro.You can get either of these for a song these days. Get a couple extra batteries and you're good to go for a day. It's as portable as any other tethered solution (barring ipad and netbook).