One of the more fascinating discoveries at the back of the main hall at CES 2012 was when we stumbled upon an almost pocket-sized 360-degree camera from Tamaggo.

The Tamaggo 360-Imager is an egg shaped device with a 14-megapixel sensor inside and a 2-inch LCD touchscreen on the back. Measuring 92 x 59 x 61mm, it can tell which way you're holding it and will capture a single panoramic shot (no stitching) through its glass/plastic lens accordingly; straight up in the air and you get a full 360 loop, but held out in front of you, it'll stop short of getting you in the picture too. Take a look at the company website for a better idea of how that works.

tamaggo 360 degree camera pictures and hands on image 1

Images are recorded onto SD and you can get them off either by removing the card or over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi which the Imager also supports. Charge it up through the mini USB slot and that's pretty much the whole package.

It feels quite weighty, but in a good way once in the hand and we're reliably informed that it'll be able to expose a decent shot even indoors. No working samples are available just now. Our one concern might be that 2-inch LCD which has really got to be far to small for any kind of preview. Still, the proof of the pudding will really be once you take a look at the JPEG file on your computer screen.

tamaggo 360 degree camera pictures and hands on image 5

The Tamaggo 360-Imager is expected to retail at $200 when it arrives at the end of the second quarter of 2012. We'll let you know just how good it is when it does.