A Digital Camera With a Projector Built In - If You Think It's Science Fiction, Think Again

Before I tell you about the amazing combined digital camera and projector technology, imagine this common scenario: you take out your digital camera or camcorder, you take some shots and then you want to show your friends how they turned out. What would you normally do? Probably crowd round the camera's little LCD screen, craning to get a look despite your friend's head blocking your view.Now imagine if, after taking the shots, you could point your camera straight at the wall and project the image or video there so everyone can see. It would be like something from a science-fiction movie!Believe it or not, you do not have to wait for some distant fantastic future - this technology is a reality now!Several manufacturers have managed to do the seemingly impossible and pack both a digital camcorder or camera and a projector into a small, inexpensive device which can take still photographs or video and project a reasonably-sized image on the wall, with a diagonal of several feet.At the time of writing, two manufacturers have produced consumer camera-projector combinations - Nikon and 3M.Nikon were the first to produce an affordable device for the mass-market - the Nikon Coolpix S1000PJ -which has now been superseded by the S1100PJ and maybe other camera projector models by the time you read this. This camera is primarily a digital stills camera with the ability to project images (though also reasonable quality videos) onto a wall, straight from the device.The other main manufacturer in this market right now is 3M, whose CP40 Shoot 'n' Share video camera has a projector built in, but is primarily a handheld camcorder, offering 720p (HD Ready resolution) but also still photographs up to 8 megapixels in resolution - and of course a projector that can display your work on the nearest flat surface.It is worth bearing in mind that these two models feature a new technology and we do not expect miracles in terms of picture quality. However, most users are not professionals, they just want to use this for family point-and-click purposes. For this, the image quality is more than adequate, and both models are priced to suit a family budget too.A camera and projector combo might also be of use to an artist, for example, who could take photographs and then sketch them directly off the projected image onto paper.You can probably think of plenty of uses for a combined digital camera with projector - both professional and fun (if Nikon's marketing is to be believed, it's great for impressing the opposite sex too!).