I originally intended to take my Macbook Pro in the field and transfer from the SxS pro cards to a couple of external hard drives but then I found this option.

It's a Vaio TT series laptop. <1kg, 7+ hours battery life. 64 bit processor and Windows 7 and 4 to 8GB of Ram. It turns out it's even more useful than I thought as the processor can easily handle running the Sony software (clip browser etc) and I could even hack together some quick edits. Expresscard 34 slot and SD/Mem stick too.

The reason I think it does so well is the Full HD 1080 capability it has as the machines could be spec'd up with a blueray drive (burner) and they have HDMI out. It pays Full HD video no probs even on battery.

They don't sell them new anymore (it was a very expensive top of the range laptop when new) but I've found them available refurb and personally bought one form Japan 2nd hand. 1/4 the price of a Macbook pro.

Could you post up URLs of where you can get these?

I bought the TT from a supplier here in Oz that will buy stuff for you from the Japanese auction site and bring them in for you - Yahoo!?????? (http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/) The average price for a low edn one is about $500-600AU and a pretty nicely specced one about $800.

There's heaps of low mileage used ones or refurbs. If you don't have such a service in the US there's a company that imports them new for you guys (well the TZ which is the latest model) - Dynamism - Sony Vaio TZ Series (http://www.dynamism.com/notebooks/sonyvaio_tz.shtml)

Sony Vaio TZ [VGN-TZ90/32ss/DVD/PremC/BBP/DEMO]
(Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 1.2 GHz, 32GB solid state HD, DVD±R DL, 1GB RAM, Bulk battery, Fingerprint Reader, English Vista Home Premium, Premium Carbon casing, 1 year warranty) - Open-box special
In stock. Approved orders ship same day if ordered by 5 pm EST.
$999.00

I believe the Japanese one's are the only one's that you can get bluray drives in and all the options like dual SSD drives and 8GB ram.

I think this clearance club website is a US one too ^ Sony VAIO VGN-TT290YBB (http://www.clearanceclub.com/products/10923-VAIO-VGN-TT290YBB)
$1649 with SSD and bluray

We've been using on occasion an older HP Mini-Note 2133 which came out in 2008. I don't believe the current Mini-Notes offer an ExpressCard slot. The model we got has a 7200rpm 160GB hard drive which was/is rare for its size and has other really nice specs: 1280x768 8.9" display, 1.2kg weight, gigabit ethernet, 2GB ram, . The CPU is useless but the combination of the right card slot, a fast hard drive and the GB ethernet was helpful to us.

HP 2133 Mini-Note PC (KX868AT) specifications - HP Products and Services Products (http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/sm/WF06b/12139188-12139280-12139280-12139280-12434628-82025076-82142977.html)

Thanks Damian. Thanks Steve.