In a camera, two screens are better than one

Financial Chronicle
At last, a fresh and genuinely useful idea. Samsung has announced two cameras with an LCD screen on the front that helps snap-shooters put themselves in their photos. It also includes some nifty features for travellers and simpler ways to delete images inside the camera.

The DualView TL225 and DualView TL220 feature a 1.5-inch LCD screen on the front (in addition to a larger LCD screen on the back) that enables photographers to better frame shots of themselves alone or in groups. Simply tap the front screen and the camera enters portrait mode and will automatically snap a photo when it detects a smiling face — no need to press a shutter button.

The dual-LCD cameras also include a child mode that displays a cartoon animation on the front LCD screen to grab the attention of camera-unaware babies and toddlers. The animation looked a bit small but it should work well for close shots. (No babies participated in a demo by Samsung, so I don’t know for sure.)

For adults who need to know when to smile and not blink, the camera in self-timer mode, will display a preview of the image the front LCD and show a visual countdown to shutter snap. The camera can also take two consecutive shots in this mode.

The $350 TL225 has an expansive 3.5-inch touch-screen LCD on the back (the TL220 has a smaller 3-inch LCD) that enables users to take advantage of an intuitive new smart gesture interface. It’s easy: Draw an X on the screen to delete an image; to rotate, draw a circle. When in playback mode, swipe the screen to advance to the next image. Nice!

Both models have a 12.2-megapixel sensor fronted by a wide-angle 27mm lens with a 4.6X optical zoom. Samsung includes dual image stabilisation and face detection. The cameras can capture high-definition video (720p) at 30 frames a second using the H.264 video format. Samsung also introduced a very well-connected traveller, the $400 CL65, that lets on-the-go users e-mail and upload photos without a computer.

The CL65 connects to e-mail and the web using Wi-Fi. It includes an on-screen Qwerty keyboard to enter addresses for e-mail and uploading to sites like Facebook, YouTube and Picasa. Bluetooth 2.0 allows images to be swapped with cellphones.

It also includes geotagging, which records the latitude and longitude where each image is taken and displays the city name on the camera’s LCD.

The 12.2-megapixel CL65 packs 35mm lens with 5X zoom. It has the same 3.5-inch wide touch-screen LCD as the TL225 and incorporates the Smart Gesture user interface. Like the dual-LCD models, it records video in 720p at 30 frames a second in the H.264 format. All three models arrive in US stores in September.