Panasonic hopes that the next time you deliver a PowerPoint presentation you'll leave your PC at home.
It has just begun to ship the £4,250 PT-L701SDE, a portable (3.9Kg) XGA projector which is the first model in its range to feature a slot for an SD (Secure Digital) memory card. Using the projector's accompanying software and adapter, presenters can convert TIFF images and Microsoft PowerPoint slides into JPEG images which are then archived on to an SD card. Once the card is slotted into the projector it can then replay the images.
The projector also features a capture function that saves images from a PC or a VCR on to an SD card. Another key feature is Image Window which freezes an image from the card on the left of the screen while the presentation continues on the right hand side. It's on sale now.
Sharp shooters
Sharp is targeting budding movie-makers with its new flagship digital video camcorder - the £1,300 VL-ME100H. Due in the stores next month, it rates as one of the most highly specified consumer camcorders on sale. Similar to last year's Sharp models, the VL-ME100H boasts a detachable 3.5inch LCD monitor with touch-screen facilities. This enables wannabe Spielbergs to con trol the camera at a distance, or even shoot images round a corner or over the top of a wall.
Other key facilities that are back for another year include an innovative zoom microphone and an option called Super Cats Eye that enables users to shoot black and white images in total darkness.
Potentially the most useful of the new facilities for PC owners is a DV-in socket. When used in conjunction with its DV-output, this enables PC users to download footage from the camera to their computer, edit it and then transfer it back to the camcorder. The VL-ME100H is also the first Sharp camcorder that can store still images on either a Multimedia or an SD (Secure Digital) storage card. Video image quality has also been enhanced with the introduction of a new 1.3 megapixel CCD.
A second Digital Video model, the VL-ME10H, boasts the SD/Multimedia card slot and the zoom microphone, but takes lower resolution still images and has a fixed LCD monitor, is set to reach the stores in June. No news on prices for that model.
Card camera
A digital camera so tiny that it can hide behind your credit card is likely to be on sale in the UK by the end of the year. The wallet-friendly SMaL Ultra-pocket is 865x54mm long and tall and just 6mm wide, yet somehow manages to find room for a supplied Multimedia card slot and a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery. Resolution is limited to VGAsmall at 640x480. It is fine for sending images as emails and posting them on the web but not much else. There's no flash either, although the maker believes that the camera's Autobrite technology (which lightens the dark details of a shot), would make it superfluous anyway. The camera is accompanied by a USB connector and is compatible with Windows. It comes with an 8MB Multimedia card, which can store around 40 images.
The camera goes on sale in the US in late summer for $129. According to the manufacturer, a European version will go on sale at the same time.
