Photography

Poco PRO - the credit card-sized 14-megapixel compact digital camera

Poco PRO - the credit card-sized 14-megapixel compact digital camera
The credit card-sized Poco PRO digital camera from Iain Sinclair
The credit card-sized Poco PRO digital camera from Iain Sinclair
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The credit card-sized Poco PRO digital camera from Iain Sinclair
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The credit card-sized Poco PRO digital camera from Iain Sinclair
The credit card-sized Poco PRO digital camera from Iain Sinclair
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The credit card-sized Poco PRO digital camera from Iain Sinclair
The credit card-sized Poco PRO digital camera from Iain Sinclair
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The credit card-sized Poco PRO digital camera from Iain Sinclair
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With cameras pretty much standard equipment on mobile phones nowadays, a lot of people don’t bother with the extra hassle of carrying around a separate one, even if it means sacrificing picture quality for convenience. While we can’t comment on the picture quality, the Poco PRO from Iain Sinclair certainly seems to tick the right boxes in the specs department and won’t be too much trouble to cart around thanks to its credit card-like dimensions.

In a magnesium chassis measuring just 85.5 x 54 x 5 mm (3.36 x 2.12 x 0.19 in) and weighing 65 g (2.29 oz), the Poco PRO manages to cram in a 14.6 megapixel autofocus CMOS sensor, 2-axis gyro controller and 2.4 inch AMOLED 240 x 320 pixel (QVGA) display. There’s also a built-in piezo speaker, twin microphones with noise cancellation, 3.5 mm jack and some DSLR type manual shooting controls such as mechanical shutter and continuous variable aperture.

The credit card-sized Poco PRO digital camera from Iain Sinclair
The credit card-sized Poco PRO digital camera from Iain Sinclair

Not satisfied with laying claim to the title of the world’s smallest 14-megapixel digital still camera, the Poco PRO can also capture full 1080p video at 60 fps. Using a 2x2 binning process, whereby groups of pixels (in this case four) are combined to form larger single pixels, the camera is able to offer improved low light performance because the resulting new pixel contains all the light from the original four pixels.

The camera comes with 4GB of internal storage, which can be expanded via microSD cards of up to 32GB. There’s also an optional microSD Wi-Fi card available for wireless transmission of images and video to a PC.

The device is charged via a micro USB3 cable, which also provides HDMI output to a HDTV via an optional HDMI connector.

Iain Sinclair is taking reservations for the Poco PRO now ahead of its planned June 2011 release. It is priced at GBP200 (approx. US$307).

Via The Gadgeteer

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2 comments
2 comments
Harpal Sahota
Gosh!... now this is years ahead... 60 frames/second... when the competitors are still trying to manage 30 frames/sec!

At £200, with full HD video... its thinner than chips!


Santa... me want two... because its still thinner than one compact camera!...go on it is Xmas!
Lamar Havard
What is the run time and can an external battery pack be plugged into it?