Nikon COOLPIX S1000pj projector camera announced

World first can project pictures and video up to 40-inches

Nikon S1000pj projector camera announced

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4 August 2009 5:01 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Looking for something a little different to capture consumer's attention - and credit cards - Nikon has announced the launch of the world's first camera with an integrated projector.

Nikon says the new COOLPIX S1000pj will "revolutionise the way we share images and videos, using personal projection".

We've seen standalone "pico" projectors (as the small form factor devices are known) and pico projectors built into mobile phones, but the camera-projector combo could become a logical, and popular, addition to the market.

On the photography side, the S1000pj offers 12.1 megapixels, a 2.7-inch TFT LCD monitor, up to ISO 6400 sensitivity, a wide-angle 5x zoom NIKKOR lens and Nikon's EXPEED image processing.

The built-in projector, with "one-touch operation", projects an image size from 5 inches up to 40 inches. It comes complete with a remote control and a "simple" projection stand for ad hoc projection sessions.

The S1000pj takes SD memory cards, but we're waiting to hear from Nikon up to what size, what file formats it can playback, how transferring files from your PC to the camera (rather than those captured on the S1000pj) for playback works, and what the resolution or brightness of the projected image is.

Other camera features include "Scene Auto Selector mode", five functions to reduce image blur, a "Smart Portrait System" with face tracking, smile and blink detection, "Skin Softening" for a bit of DIY air brushing and four movie modes with sound.

Available in black and silver, the S1000pj is due to go on sale in September for £399.99 or 485 euros.

UPDATE: Nikon has revealed to Pocket-lint that the camera will only "officially" project images/movies taken with the camera itself and the brightness of the projector is up to 10 lumens.

UPDATE 2: Nikon's also told us that the resolution of the projector is VGA, which means 640 x 480. The model we handled had a 4GB SD card in, so it goes up at least that far, but we still haven't been able to discover the upper limit. The battery will give you a full hour of projection before it conks out.