Projector camera

3M's CP45 projector camcorder is now available in Europe - shipping from Personal Projector in the UK for £299.99 (including tax). The CP45 is 3M's 2nd generation projector camcorder (an upgrade to the CP40) that offers HD (720p) videos, 5mp still camera, LED flash and 2GB of memory (and a microSD slot). It also has a small 2.4" LCD. The projector offers SVGA (800x600) resolution at 20 lumens. It includes A/V and composite inputs. In the US it costs $299.

3M's latest pico projectors, the MP225a and the CP45 projector camcorder are now shipping: you can get them from Amazon - the MP225a here and the CP45 here. Both cost $299.

The MP225a (shown above) is a pico projector aimed towards iPhone, iPod and iPad owners - it includes cable for most Apple devices (VGA and Composite cables are optional). The projector offers SVGA (800x600) resolution at 32 lumens. This is a stand alone projector with no media player on board.

PC Advisor posted an interesting review of Sony's HDR-PJ30VE projector camcorder. The reviewer finds that the projector is not just a novelty - it's actually useful and was his preferred method of watching recorded footage. But finding a clear wall to project is sometimes difficult. He also says that "the inclusion of a projector won't entice me to buy this camcorder". Regarding the camera itself, he says that the video quality is clear and vibrant. Operation was easy but the user interface was a bit cumbersome.

Sony's HDR-PJ is a series of camcorders with a built-in projectors - a LED based LCoS projector. We do not have any technical details on the projector yet - beside the fact that it can project images up to 60".

BenQ's DV-S11 is now shipping in the US for $229. The DV S11 is a full-HD (1080P) camcorder with a pico-projector. It's got a 5mp camera and a large (3.5" 230K pixels) LCD. It stores images to an SD card, and includes an HDMI out port. We don't have any technical information about the projector itself, though.

GE's PJ1 projector camera is now shipping for $299.99. The PJ1 is a projector camera that uses a DLP projector (854x480, 15 lumens). The camera offers a 14.1mp sensor, 720p video and 7X optical zoom. It uses SD and SDHC memory cards.

Young Optics announced plans to improve their pico-projector module brightness to 20 lumens per watt in 2011. The company will first focus on the digital-video (DV) market for their embedded modules.

TI announced new VGA and WVGA DLP-Pico chipsets that have enhanced brightness without increasing power usage over previous designs. The new chips are also smaller and cheaper than before. This is TI's third generation of DLP-Pico chips. We do not have a photo yet... but here are the two previous generations (you can see how then 2nd gen chips are smaller):

DLP chips, Gen1 and Gen2

TI is targeting digital cameras and camcorders for the VGA chip and mobile phones for the WVGA ones.