My vacation camera comes in handy

I recently bought a nice little vacation movie/still camera called the Sanyo CG6 Xacti. It’s 6 megapixels, shoots stills and MPEG4 movies, 5x optical zoom, and does a very credible job, especially for Web use. I tucked it in my pocket when I covered, using my Canon SLRs, former President Bill Clinton as he campaigned for his wife Hillary at the Bourbon County Fairgrounds on March 25. Because Clinton spoke for some time, I decided to use this camera to shoot a movie for Kentucky.com. You can see it here.

The sound was really good with the built-in stereo mike, and the camera uses SD cards, making import into iMovie a snap by just dragging the clip files into the iMovie clip windows, and they copy quickly. Plus you can use the camera as a tape recorder only. I picked mine up at Wal-Mart for $200 to use on vacation this summer, but I couldn’t resist trying it out on a news assignment. Almost forgot: you can plug in headphones to monitor your sound and it has a tripod socket. Sorry, no external mike jack though.

One more thing. This is my official press pass to photograph the ex-president of the United States: A handwritten sticker with “Press” on it given to me by a nice local at the media check-in table. Well, he DID check my Herald-Leader ID. Heck, I’ve had more trouble getting access to the Backstreet Boys than the ex-prez.

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