xshot – Review & Giveaway (closed) – Feisty Frugal & Fabulous

My husband and I had our honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The scenery was beautiful, and we had a great time. That was over 7 years ago and we laugh still at our silly honeymoon pictures. Why? Because it would be hard to convince someone that we were actually there together and not wandering around by ourselves! This was back when we had a film-type camera, and being as young as we were we weren’t too trusting with people to ask them to take our picture and hand back our camera. And so it went, my husband took a picture of me by the ocean, and then I took a picture of him. My husband took a picture of me by a palm tree and I took a picture of him. We have two pictures of us together from our honeymoon. One is a photo that a waiter took in a restaurant but the sun was behind us and we ended up being two shadows at a table. The other photo is one of those arms length photos where you try and stretch your arm out as far in front of you as it will go and snap a picture hoping it works out. That’s it.

Finally, technology and invention has caught up to our frustration and goofy arm-stretch pictures and given us a product that enables great shots of 1 or more people and the scenery behind them! The xshot is a durable lightweight metal rod and shaft that is 9 inches when closed (so it will easily fit in your purse, backpack, or diaper bag) and extends up to 37 inches.

The xshot weighs only 5oz so it’s so easy to take with you. There’s also a lanyard attached for extra security when holding onto the xshot with your camera on the other end. A simple screw on the top helps attach your own camera to the xshot with ease (even I could do it!)

I tested out the xshot in my own backyard. Since it’s the middle of winter here and we don’t travel all that much, I didn’t have a beautiful backdrop to use but figured this would work. First, I took a photo using the famous ‘arm-stretch’ maneuver that we’re all familiar with. Then, I easily attached my Sony digital camera to the xshot, extended the arm, tilted the camera down (since now the camera was far away and higher up) and used the timer button. Here is my before and after:

I’m happy to have this product to use this summer, especially with us travelling as a family of 4. This way we don’t have to ask strangers to take our picture (I always feel so embarrassed asking people) and the size of the xshot makes it easy to pack. I can even keep it in our glove box in the car.

In the US, the xshot can be purchased at Walmart, Magellans and Amazon.com among others. In Canada, the xshot can be purchased at Best Buy, Staples and London Drugs among others. You can also purchase the xshot directly from their site for $29.95.

xshot has offered 1 of their products to 1 lucky reader. To enter, comment here with a situation you have been in where the xshot would have been handy to have!

You must do the above first to be entered. Then, for extra entries:

~ Follow me!
~ Subscribe to my blog via email
~ Add my button to your blog
~ Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link

Please ensure that your profile is public or leave your email address in your comment; you can’t win if I can’t contact you. This giveaway will end on February 11th at 10:00pm CT. I will use random.org to choose a winner, email the winner, and post the win here. Contest is open to Canadian and US addresses.