Sony showed off a new camera designed just for fashion-conscious people who like to to take pictures of themselves. Sony says the new Cyber-shot DSC-KW11 will help you take your very best “selfie.”
If you aren’t familiar with the term, a “selfie” is when you take a photograph of yourself.
While the term “selfie” is a new one, taking a picture of yourself is nothing new. I recently found some photos of my mother and aunt mugging it up in a photo booth back in the late forties. But such picture-taking used to be limited by the cost of film and developing photos. With the advent of the camera phone, people can take as many photos as they choose at no extra cost and distribute them via social media for free.
This new camera looks like a perfume bottle or high-end makeup compact. Sony calls it luxurious and sleek and says it’s great for capturing your outfit of the day.
The camera offers a 19.2 effective megapixel sensor and a wide angle lens that it promises will make you look skinnier. The high-def screen screen will let you get a good look at your beautiful self to make sure you look just right.
The camera also comes with a Beauty Effect mode that will allow you to smooth skin and widen your eyes, so your photos will look nothing like the real you. The easy-to-set self-timer can be activated with only your thumb.
Since the real reason to take a selfie is to share, the camera has a one-touch WiFi connection with smartphones or tablet to allow you to share your pics to social media. You can also control the camera remotely using your phone or tablet.
No word on the cost yet. It will be available in Asia starting in October and there’s also no word on when you might find it in the U.S. As silly as this device sounds, I have to admit that I probably would have loved it back in my college days when my roommate and I used to dress up and take photos like the one below:
While this camera may appeal to young, selfie-obsessed customers, is there really enough going on here to differentiate it from the camera on your smartphone and apps that will perform the same slimming and touch-up functions?
The point and shoot camera market has suffered greatly as smartphones have become the go-to camera choice for more and more people. Are specialty cameras like this a way to revive it? Only sales figures can answer that question.
~ Cynthia