You bet it is.

After going to all of these trade shows, we see some of the latest, greatest tools to make your photographic life better.
Sometimes there is a product that is just fun. And I mean for everyone.
You, and the people you are photographing.

Forget Soap-On-A Rope: How about Camera-On-A-Stick ? Only really good?
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The XShot has taken what you probably think is a simple idea. And made just the right product, It’s one of those “ why didn’t I think of that”?

Well, you didn’t and these people did, and did it great.

I have used this to come into a family scene and include myself into all of the shots. The XShot itself gets people curious and it becomes a different deal than the standard pose. And now I’m in a family album.

But here how is how it may have been originally concepted for use:

OK, you’re on vacation and you want to get the shot of your and your travel mates (nice, and general right?) in front of whatever icon of your trip.

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The 2 of you in front of the castle, cliff, building, sign, WHATEVER!
And that dude you are considering giving your camera to take the shot seems ok, but somewhere in the back of your mind you may be thinking ” he may just bolt and there goes my camera”.
Fine, maybe you’re not that paranoid. Or suspicious.

What this XShot does is allow you to put you camera on a well-built telescoping metal rod with a tripod like mount at the tip and take your own dang picture.
By a simple usage of the self-timer, you’ll be a pro at this in no time.
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I personally used it with a Sony DCS-200 with the smile recognition so it only took the shot when we smiled. Love that.

Here is a video of someone who used the video feature of a digital camera and made this:

And from the Big Idea TV show with Donny Deutsch.

There are a few versions of this concept out there, but this is the gold standard.
Metal channeled telescoping rod, feels right , works right.
You won’t put a DSLR out there or a camcorder and, trust me, even if you could, your arm would have to be in major shape to hold that weight at that distance. Not easily done.

And remember when I said just a fun thing to use?
That’s this unit.
Go to your local camera store and check it out.
Put your point and shoot on it and see what uses you come up with. Maybe it’s hat overhead shot of your kids soccer field. Or the group shot that has too many in the group.(have them all look up).

It’s going in my travel bag. And to most of the informal social events.

C’mon! Don’t be so serious all of the time.

Cheers!
Damon Webster

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2008 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Photo News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.