One of the Nikon reps projected my image onto his friend's back. (Click to enlarge.)

Although it’s not yet available in stores, Nikon’s projector camera, the Nikon Coolpix S1000pj, $430, was on display last night at a Pepcom trade-show event in New York City. Slated to be available in stores later this month, this new point-and-shoot certainly caught my attention and for the most part, I liked what I saw and thought the feature was pretty intuitive:

• To activate the projection feature, you press a button on the top of the camera. I was happy to see there was no need to drill down into a menu to use the feature. There’s also a manual focus control that you’ll need to use depending how far you are from the surface on which you’re projecting your image. Again, I found this control pretty easy to use.
• Although I was impressed with the still-image projections (right), I think it’s even cooler that you can project standard def video. It’s just a shame the video isn’t high def.
• It was hard to get a sense of how bright the projections might be in a typical home setting from viewing them on the brightly lit trade show floor. The Nikon folks told me that the projector’s light source is an LED that produces 30 10 lumens of light.
• Although it wasn’t displayed at the show, the camera ships with a small support stand. The Nikon rep told me this orients the camera at a slight slant for optimal projecting.

After seeing the Coolpix S1000pj in action, I think this camera will be quite popular at family and social gatherings. Check back here for our assessment of this unique point-and-shoot. —Terry Sullivan

[Correction 9/24/09:  The camera projector's LED produces 10 lumens of light, not 30 as originally stated. —Ed.]