Ray, Here’s your answer for the “What if I want to have the camera hanging out there?”
and this one for the “cling to stone and other uneven surfaces” situation
http://www.joby.com/ or the generic equivalents from several other makers.
How heavy is the camera?
Hmmm. I wonder where HJ got that idea from?
http://www.largescalecentral.com/LSCForums/viewtopic.php?id=9798
-Brian 
Ray,
The one I bought takes up to 3kg (6.6lbs), covers the range of the cams in our house (Mini SDs to Hi8 and D-SLR)
Brian,
The gizmo as such has been a known quantity for some time - reading “Shutterbug” etc. helps - but I finally “needed” one for my future “projects”, not least because of the quick-connect feature. 