It’s amazing how such a little device can allow such amazing creativity. I’m all for gadgets that allow still camera or camcorder shooting from different angles, without having to contort the human body into all sorts of nooks, crannies, up trees, in ditches and other positions that a centipede would shy from. My physiotherapist’s annual bill is testimony to been there, done that.

But car mounts and the like used in shows like Top Gear are not cheap. I know as I have two of them I bought from the UK. Yes, they work, and work brilliantly, but good gear costs serious money.

These sorts of mounts however are dedicated to specific jobs – windscreen internal, windscreen external, fixed on fender and so on. Therefore, to cover the gamut of all things needed, you need a variety of differing mounts. You can build your own for a reasonable price, and AusCam sells a book for around $80 that has a bundle of these with step-by-step instructions and even a parts list you can take to a hardware store (see www.australasiancamcorder.info and click on the shop option to look for Killer Camera Rigs You Can Build).

For an absolute universal mount though, that can be used for anything from guitar neck mounted to in-car shots that mount to - well, anything mostly you can think really, for less than forty bucks, the GorillaPod is hard to beat.

www.maxwell.com.au will flog you one. And yes, they do come in different colours, but why escapes me.