In retrospect, the 2000's brought forth technology seemed to have had a shrinkage problem... definitely not in terms of quantity, mostly in size. The phone from Zoolander is a good example of how tiny our expectations were for the future. Look at us now, these gigantic phones are practically slablets that have a difficult time staying alive long enough to complete a call. Japan on the other hand still cherishes all things that are small. Miniscule is synonymous with cute, or as it's said over there: Kawaii. It's only natural that cameras would be subject to this precious treatment.
Alas here is an extremely small camera by a Japanese brand called Thanko. If you thought the Canon SL1 was small, you have no idea...This thing measures only 38 x 33 x 28mm and weighs 17g. That's pretty much the size of your average keychain charm. This is no ordinary little ornament however, it has the ability to take both JPEG and AVI video with its dazzling 1MP sensor that I'm pretty sure is from a webcam judging from EXIF data. There are only two buttons which I'm assuming are for power and shutter, so how you choose between still and video escapes me. Somewhere in there is a motion sensor which detects movement triggering video recording for up to 2 minutes and there's even an extremely small led light that acts like a flash when it recognizes darkness. The tiny camera takes miniSD for storage and can also connect to your computer via usb cable.
Sample Image Although trying to navigate Thanko's website with crude Google translation led to some awkwardly funny sentences ("The wee even if I take it! Like the SLR!"). I didn't find an actual name for it, but the little guy goes for 5980 Yen or roughly $59. I can't see this thing being very practical (or good for that matter), but heck it would be a great prank to bring this to your next photo shoot in a normal size gear bag. "You mean you only shoot with ...that??"
Tech Talk
Super Tiny Camera for Super Tiny Hands
In retrospect, the 2000's brought forth technology seemed to have had a shrinkage problem... definitely not in terms of quantity, mostly in size. The phone…
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