Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG6 Digital Camcorder

Summary: As a 24+ year working professional photographer and avid amateur videographer with access to pro video gear. I am used to using Hasselblad still equipment and Canon video cameras. While this is not exactly on par with those cameras, to have the capability of having a 6.36 MP still and superior consumer/prosumer video camera in a single package is amazing. Believe me when I say that I am rarely impressed with my gadget purchases, but when I saw the Sanyo CG6 at my local department store I thought "for $299.00 if it's junk, I'm not out a fortune". Well let me tell you.... I was blown away by the quality of both still and video images from this tiny little unit! I took it to a music concert the very first night I had it and it was so easy to use while capturing the performance as well as my friends enjoying the show that nobody noticed I was taking video and still images. When I got home and downloaded it to my MacBook Pro (more on this in a second) I couldn't believe the quality of the video and still images. There was a wide variety of lighting during the show (daylight, night time, stage) that all of the examples I had captured were (again) amazingly good. The image stabalizer funtion worked pretty well, enough so that the low light situations were sharp. I hadn't had enough time to thoroughly read the manual, so I did a quick MENU check, and simply set everything to auto and it did a great job under all the different lighting situations. Another point of amazement, it even has an audio out jack for headphones so you know excactly what you are capturing on the audio side. Some "so called" prosumer cameras don't even offer that capability. Now on to the real surprise. Being someone who lives in both the MAC and WINDOWS world because of my work, I always have a frustrating time getting things to work cross platform. It can usually happen, but takes some time to figure out the WINDOWS side of Codec’s, importing drivers into software (as usually the native software that is supplied with a particular gadget or device prefers one platform over another but NEVER both. Well here's the kicker! This thing captures video in MP4 format and stills in JPEG...... WooooHooooo! And was immediately able to be recognized simply as FOLDERS on both my MAC OSX systems and my Dell desktop and Sony Vaio laptop. All you have to do is select a file, or drop and drag into ANY software platform that recognizes these universal file formats. CRAZY KEWL!!!!! No proprietary files crap, no conversion from some weird or unheard of file formats. IT JUST WORKED ON EVERYTHING I DUMPED IT INTO!! I took it to my office, went to my Director of our local Government TV channel and he couldn't believe it when I showed him what the stills and video came from. He thought I was joking! He commented that the STEREO audio quality that was recorded during video capture was better then some Canon prosumer cameras he uses still today. He was so impressed that he immediately went out and bought 1 for himself and1 for his assistant to carry as "pocket video and still cameras". The SD memory card capture media is just as easily recognized in ANY media reader, and with the price of memory cards dropping, a heck of a lot cheaper then buying Hi8 tapes!!! And this model is NOT limited to a specific size memory card. You can get about 45 minutes of recoring time per MB of memory. I was using a 4GB card and recording in the highest quality and had plenty of space for the conecrt. I never had to get the other $GB cards I had popped into my pocket. Now this camera isn't going to replace my Hasselblad still cameras, or the Canon GL2's we use, but at less than $300.00 unit and the ease of which these little cameras can be tucked into a jacket or shirt pocket to produce such terrific results, I will never leave the house without my Xacti CG6. And you can bet I will be checking out the next version of this little powerhouse of a camera (that is if it can ever be improved upon). My suggestion........ If you are going on vacation, your kids school play or recital or simply wanting to capture a memory of that special moment, this is the camera to buy for anything close to the price and size. You WILL NOT be disappointed. And for the cynic’s out their, NO I do not work or have ANY vested interested in Sanyo or their affiliates..... This is one of those rare times that something is worth a whole lot more then you pay for it and I think that kind of incident deserves credit!!