PANASONIC W850 in Peterborough
With Twin Camera, Panasonic is hoping to create a need where there wasn't any before. The basic concept is that the HC-W850 incorporates two lenses and two sensors, so you can capture two views of the scene at once, with the second superimposed as a picture-in-picture within the first. The main CMOS is a sizeable 1/2.3-inch back-side illuminated sensor with Mpixels, while the secondary one has an also decent 1/4-inch size and 5.27Mpixels. The secondary lens assembly sits on the edge of the flip-out LCD, and rotates, so can be pointed in a completely different direction to the primary lens. The main idea behind the second lens is to record yourself whilst recording others: your reaction to Baby's first words or steps, your face as you narrate a tour round a location, and so on. Other uses are a little more tenuous, but there is room for creative ideas with the flexible orientation of the lens. Both video frames are mixed in-camera and recorded together, so you can't separate them out at a later stage, or reposition the smaller frame. In fact, there are only two options for the secondary frame - large and small - which is rather a limitation. If you rotate the lens all the way round to point into the LCD panel, this turns off the secondary frame entirely. The secondary lens has fixed focus and zoom, and doesn't have the image stabilisation and enhancement options of the primary imaging system.