December 19th, 2008
Holiday Gift Guide 2008: Best digital camera accessories
Forget Black Friday and Cyber Monday. They’re for the hyper-organized who get their holiday shopping done early. This post is for folks like me (i.e., the ones who always end up paying for expedited shipping and can often be found trolling the mall on Christmas Eve). Arm yourself with this list of digital camera complements before you hit the electronics store this weekend and you’ll make your favorite digital shooter very happy indeed.
Optoma Pico Pocket Projector
This is one of the coolest camera accessories I’ve seen in a long time. The Optoma Pico Pocket Projector is not much bigger than a compact camera (at 1.97×0.59×4.06 inches and 4 ounces) and slips easily into a shirt pocket.
Despite its diminutive size, it’s a full-fleged DLP projector which uses a LED light source. It throws off only about 9 lumens (compare that to 1,000 to 2,000 lumens for most home-theater projectors) but the image looks surprisingly bright, even at the maximum 60-inch image size from 102-inches away. You’ll need a white (or better yet, reflective projection screen) background and a dark room for best results, though.
Taking a page from the the Flip Mino school of usability, the Pico is incredibly easy to get up and running. There are only two controls (an off/low-power-mode/bright-mode switch and a focus wheel) and I was able to project a slideshow from my digital camera in literally seconds after opening the box of my review unit. It’s just a matter of connecting the included AV cable to your camera’s AV cable and flipping the switch. While you can view videos from an iPhone using the included connection kit, it isn’t possible to view your iPhone photos, unfortunately. But that’s small potatoes compared to the wow-factor of toting around a 60-inch screen in your pocket.
The Pico started shipping in the US on December 15 for a list price is $430, but you should be able to find it for less on the street.
Check out David Pogue’s hands-on review and CNET Crave’s photo gallery.
Janice Chen has been covering technology for almost two decades. She got her hands on a Nikon Coolpix 900 back in 1998 and has been a digital camera enthusiast ever since. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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