Hardware and camera stores are bad for my budget. Yesterday I wandered into my local camera store (Wolfes…the only full service camera store around since Gluskins went out of business a few months back), intending to pick up a filter for my HV20.

Wouldn’t you know they don’t carry what they call “camcorder” filters. Which means my little buddy with its 43mm thread wouldn’t be getting a facelift today.

But – oops. I did need a few batteries for my lav mike. Done.

And a lens cleaning kit – good idea/something in a nice hard case I can toss in my bag.

Hey – what’s that? A mountable grip that will hold two accessories! Wow. Gotta have that.

So for the price of a good filter, I got off cheap and escaped before I started looking at cameras…hmmmm.

Today I’m playing with putting old toys together with the new toys. I haven’t been able to easily use my wireless with the HV20 because there was no real way to mount it. With a little work I can glue a shoe to the receiver and run a short XLR to mini-jack plug to the camera.

I can also add an on-camera light or shotgun. The camera itself has a shoe holder, but since the wireless receiver is longer than the camera…well, that sure won’t work.

Now I can add up to three accessories! Wheeee! For about $15 it might make sense to get more of these for the Elura 100s we use in the classroom.

The nice thing is that the grip and accessories add heft to the camera…it feels more real. And hopefully it will impress the heck out of my hapless victims and I won’t be mistaken for Grandma Green – again.

Photos added later…gotta run to prep for the 48FP.