It struck me that having a firewire connection constantly poking out the side of a camera has got to place a lot of stress on the camera.

Has anyone enough experience with these new tools to comment?

which brings up a very good point, does anyone know of any angled 1394 connectors?

I think the Firewire Depot has some. 90 degree elbows and 45 degree elbows.

http://www.fwdepot.com/thestore/default.php

They also have a 6 pin to 6 pin swivel cable.