THe Nikon Coolpix S1100pj has a 14 megapixel image sensor, a Nikkor lens that offers 5-times optical zoom capability and mechanical image stabilization.
I remember coming home from the Consumer Electronics Show a few years ago thinking tiny projectors were soon going to be everywhere. The excited shills I spoke with at the annual event stated confidently that mini-projectors would be embedded in clocks, found on the backs of smart phones, and even cleverly hidden in various pieces of household furniture.
So where are they? Many companies seem to have all but forgotten their projector plans.
But not Nikon. The Japanese camera-maker just released its second point-and-shoot camera to sport a front facing projector. Successor to last fall's S1000pj, the Coolpix S1100pj ($350) is designed to let people share images quickly and easily.
Given the right kind of environment, it does just that.
When photographers try to share pictures on their cameras, it usually results in people crowding around them and looking over their shoulders. Viewers squint their eyes and either ask to hold the camera themselves or ask that various subjects on the tiny display be enlarged. It's claustrophobic for the person doing the sharing and generally dissatisfying for everyone else.
In contrast, here's what it's like to show off pictures with Nikon's camera: Turn off the lights and tell everyone to look at the metre-plus-wide slideshow on the wall. There's no jostling for position or careless passing about of your expensive picture popper. Everyone can see. There's even a little stand and remote so viewers don't have to suffer the camera owner's jittery hands.
Of course the key step is turning off the lights. Whereas a home theatre projector might cast an image with a brightness of a couple thousand lumens (lumens being the unit used to measure the power of light), the S1100pj's LED projection system generates a piddly 14 lumens. That's 40 per cent brighter than its predecessor, which managed just 10 lumens, but still nothing like the projectors to which you're likely accustomed. Try throwing images in a room with even low light and you'll only be able to make out their brightest elements.
Still, it's novel, fun, and works surprisingly well if you can control environmental lighting. It can even function as a makeshift business projector in a pinch, assuming you take the time to install the proper software on your laptop.
Of course, a projector is just a fancy perk. Its value would be negligible if the camera didn't take a decent photograph. Happily, the S1100pj takes lovely snapshots - and some decent 720p video, too.
A 14 megapixel image sensor captures light streamed through a Nikkor lens that offers 5-times optical zoom capability, a viewing angle equivalency of 28mm to 140mm, and mechanical image stabilization. In layman's terms, that means you can capture crisp, detailed images of both the wide angle and telephoto varieties and get as close to your subject as 30 cm without losing focus.
I shot indoors and out trying many of the camera's 17 automatic scene settings and found no significant quibbles with any of them. Grain became evident in shadows while shooting in a bedroom illuminated only by a lamp, but that's pretty much to be expected of a compact camera.
HD movies turned out nicely as well, especially when shot outdoors. Quickly moving subjects and tracking shots had a slightly jarring realer-than-real aesthetic, but were still quite watchable. I'd have no problems leaving my dedicated video camera at home much of the time in favour of carrying something so much smaller that can perform double duty as camera/camcorder.
Standard image capturing and editing features are present - including face and smile detection, a "blinkproof" mode, and the ability to perform quick in-camera touchups - and there's a healthy helping of the sort of bonus features casual shutterbugs seem to enjoy, such as the ability to draw on pictures, add voice memos, and perform instant "glamour" retouches to drop a few pounds from a subject's face.
The 3-inch touch screen makes for a fairly accessible interface, but its plain black-and-white menus are the opposite of engaging. Manufacturers like Olympus, Sony, and Samsung are making great strides in point-and-shoot interfaces by creating inviting, intuitive graphical interfaces that offer coaching tips for less experienced shooters. It would be nice to see a bit more of that in Nikon's camera. As is, casual shutterbugs will need to wade into the 200-plus page PDF manual to better understand functions like "slow sync flash" and "smile timer."
I'm also a little surprised by the S1100pj's muted design. Many consumers buy cameras based on two factors: brand name recognition and the way they look. Nikon's got the brand name covered, but the plain black unit I evaluated was a study in utilitarianism; a simple rectangular chassis with a few buttons scattered here and there. There's nothing wrong with it, but I doubt it would standout in a display case filled with competing models.
That said, there aren't really any competing models, are there? Other cameras might have more elegant interfaces and prettier bodies, but there aren't any with a built-in projector that lets you throw television-sized images on a wall. There may well come a time when projectors are ubiquitous in our portable gadgets, but for now the S1100pj has the market cornered.