Its been a busy week. Trust me, moving house is not the glamorous thing it is cracked up to be. Sure I can look at the ocean from a balcony, now have airconditioning and heating, and when broadband was eventually connected (Go Westnet!), it was faster than before.

I can now also use VoIP, have my Skype setup and the magazine is well on the way to edition 5, but the harrassment of dealing with all the utilities means there are long delays before the essentails are working properly.

This gave me time - before all hell broke loose to get the next edition of Australasian Camcorder out - to investigate a few pet things I was interested in in the search for more gadgets to add innovation and creativity to video shoots.

The first is a book. Dan Selakovich was introduced to me by a close friend who has the wonderful name of Douglas Spotted Eagle. Those in the know will recognise Douglas as the principal of VASST who make a whole bunch of training tapes that I now that I now have the honour to distribute in Oz (www.australasiancamcorder.info). Dan has written a book caled "Killer Camera Rigs Anyone Can Build" and seriously, if you need a car mounted camera, a jib, crane or even balloon mount, its in this book and will cost less than A$80 to build - complete with photos step by step, instructions and a build list of items needed.

Next is Steady Stick. This is a wholly Oz built product for creating shots on the run - think Rocky Balboa running up the stairs of the Empire State Building. Do an ebay search - its about A$199.

Another great gizmo is "quickpod". No, not a YAAI (yet another accessory for an iPod - or IP-Od as James from Top Gear calls it) but a sort of mono-pod allowing you to add a digital camera or camcorder to shoot/film yourself. What makes it clever is a small mirror included so you can frame the shot correctly.

Finally (and yes it is short this week), if you are regularly filming speeches and such like, but thought that wireless mics were out of the budget, I have found (and bought) a set of Azden mics that work over 50 metres and are brilliant, easy to use and economical. www.gdbint.com.au will point you in the right direction.

Until next week..... but for any queries, drop me a line at david@australasiancamcorder.info.