Projecting innovation: Up until this past year, imagination in the field of digital cameras was largely reserved for how you used them, not in the design of the devices themselves. But the threat from mobile phones with built-in cameras has triggered innovation. Nikon's Coolpix S1000pj, for example, comes with a built-in projector, possibly the first of its kind. Marrying a camera with a projector in retrospect looks like one of those "why didn't I think of that?" ideas. But good ideas need equally good execution. The S1000pj can throw an image up to 1 meter in diameter onto a flat surface up to 2 meters away with a modest resolution of 640×480 pixels. It can project still images, slide shows and video. Brightness is another matter as the camera's projector bulb puts out a miserly 10 lumens, far below low-end projectors, which put out 600 to 800 lumens.

Setting aside the projector, the S1000pj is a solid but not exciting compact camera. It has a 12-megapixel sensor and its image-stabilized 5× zoom lens operates between 28-140 mm, in 35 mm terms. The 28 is decently wide and 140 is enough on the tele end. The 2.7-inch LCD monitor is standard and the 36 megabytes of internal memory is the kind of token offering that camera makers insist on, although it can do little except annoy users.

The S1000pj looks a bit odd at the front with both a regular lens and a projector, but in other respects it is similar to a regular camera with a clean and simple design.