It’s kind of a potluck Thursday here in the web department that I call home, and I’m not quite ready to smack out the next bokeh post, so I’m going to goof off today and mostly just point out a few odds and ends things I’ve seen kicking around the dusty corners of our site that interest me.

First up is this clever hackjob, the CMS-FLAT (catchy name, right?) by DM Accessories. So, here’s the skinny, some new Canon Camcorders (the HF10 and HF100) started using a new type of hotshoe, the “Mini Advanaced.” This is particularly frustrating for a lot of filmers since, y’know, it doesn’t let them mount their old lights on some pretty stellar new camcorders. So, here we go, clever solutions at work. These jobbies slide into the Mini Advanced hotshoe and give you a universal coldshoe. Bada-bing.

Next up is this cool and admittedly bizarre gadget: the WindowMount Plus. It’s from Trek-Tech, the mad geniuses who brought us the Trekpods.

I have to admit, I’d've liked to have been there for the training on this, because frankly it seems a bit weird, even to me. It seems that it’s for quickly mounting your camera to a partially rolled down car w

indow, mostly. Which, admittedly, is very cool if you plan to go on safaris, or become a photographry gangbanger, cruising down the main strip and rattling off photos. And I’ve used those mag mounts it comes with, the small one handled my E-3 without shaking at all, and you get the heavy-force plate too, which oughtta be good enough to hold some fairly impressive rigs in place.

And, one more for now. Times are tough here in the States, and not everyone can afford the professional studio lighting rig they deserve (like, hey, me!). So, it’s a darn good thing more and more advanced DSLRs are including those pop-up flashes, right? (You anti pop-up flash people are welcome to disagree, but me, I see no harm in them myself). The big problem with pop-up flashes? Itty-bit strobe element, while good for saving space, is also really good for making your portraits look like mugshots. So, unless you’re working law enforcement, I’d consider getting something like Gary Fong’s Puffer here: a nice flash diffuser for your pop-up flash. It won’t be replacing any 580EX II Canon flashes, but it’ll make that pop-up flash in your Canon 40D (as well as any Sony, Olympus, Pentax, or Nikon model digital SLR camera) notably friendlier to subjects who weren’t just busted for a break-and-enter. And hey, they’re cheap, which is good for everyone.