My last camera was a Nikon Coolpix S7c, great camera with a huge screen and takes great pictures. Whilst I was on Holiday in Phuket earlier this year I took a few video clips and whilst the quality was OK the sound was awful. It was time for an upgrade, so I decided on a Sanyo Xacti CG65.

I had been looking at the Sanyo Xacti range for years, the downside was always that I don’t want to sacrifice quality on still images, and with movies the capacity of SD cards was an issue until recently.

The Xacti uses SDHC cards, and it just so happens that I have a 8gb SDHC that I bought on eBay recently, this allows me 5 hours and 40 mins of video in the high quality TV mode, and a lot more in web mode.

Image quality for both video and stills is amazing, especially indoors where I really did not expect it to perform well. It has the ability to snap a still whist making a video, this is more useful than it sounds.

It’s too early to say what battery life will be like, but it’s looking good so far.

Connecting this to a computer is a snap, on my computers itunes opens up and offers to import the movies and stills, on computers without itunes it’s still easy as it can connects in card reader mode, or of course if you have a SDHC card reader in your computer you can just pop the card in.

I wont go into the technical specs because you can read that anywhere, and my opinion on specs is that they don’t mean anything when it comes to cameras, the proof is all in the images and videos.

Buy one, you wont be disapponted! In Thailand these are 9,900 Baht (140 UK pounds, 280 USD)

With the HV20, Canon still sees HDV as a valuable format. The camcorder is priced at approximately $1000 which makes for a great bargain because of its many features although a bit heavyweight at 18ounces. This is Canon’s second tape- based high-definition camcorder.

The picture quality has sharp and brilliant colors while offering a wider spectrum of subdued color giving it an overall more professional touch.

The HV20 has super detail HDV which takes 1920-by-1080-pixel footage. It records to MiniDV tapes in high-definition or standard-definition footage. There are 8 scene modes as well as the normal auto and manual and the image effects include Vivid, Neutral, Low Sharpening, Soft Skin as well as a custom option.

When using the footage from the Canon HV20, even highly compressed web video looks sharper as compared to video from a standard-definition camcorder. However, more time is needed to render for the reason that editing high - definition footage needs a substantially powerful computer.

The separate button for backlight compensation and the integrated video light are neat bonuses. The camcorder doesn’t include a manual focus ring but instead uses a small wheel next to the lens which is quite easy to use.

The lens cover is motorized and is neatly embedded in the body sliding open and shut automatically when you power up or power down. This an added bonus as you avoid a lens cap intruding into you shot or accidentally getting yanked out.

The still-image shots and sound quality deserve high ranking marks and the battery lasts almost two hours which is an additional bonus for the Canon HV20.

Camera phones are changing the role of the traditional camera by adding an omnipresent touch engaging a newly personal awareness and unrelenting vigilance to the visually newsworthy making amateur photojournalists out of its users. Additionally reporting is evolving by quieter methods but with equally important practices under the radar of published news at the micro and macro variety.

The mundane is now elevated to the potential news level and sending camera phone photos to major news outlets are just one end of the wide range of everyday mass second-rate journalism via camera phones.

Camera phones are also revolutionizing the watchdog role of publishing institutions by providing an open medium for amateur photojournalists on a micro and macro scale. The innovation of the camera phone has also affected the entertainment industry by giving birth to a new generation of amateur paparazzis.

Newsworthy, noteworthy and photo-worthy covers an expansive continuum from the personal that are never shared to the intimately newsworthy moments. Camera phones have transformed journalism from the latest news headline to news shared between family members.

Camera phones capture the more fleeting and unexpected moments where the world can practically view news with the immediacy of an eyewitness. For example, during the recent cyclone in Burma the local people with camera phones were able to provide live photo and video footage of scenes that would normally pass by uncaptured.

Camera phones are also wearing away the power of totalitarian governments to control communications, and giving the outside world an inside look at the real situation that the citizens are facing. This is especially worrisome for the China officials as it gives much leverage for opposing political groups. In neighboring Burma, where the military dictators are even more strict, camera phones have provided the outside world with a firsthand look at the kind of violence and brutality that the regime uses to control the people. When the brutal crackdown on the monks took place 6 months ago, photos and videos of the demonstrators being beaten immediately surfaced all over the internet – largely taken by multimedia phones. When the government found out, they shut down the internet in the entire country for two weeks while attempting to confiscate as much of the footage as possible, but to little avail.