Technology: Face detectors and smile shutter

I've been using point and shoot digital cameras for 8 years now. I've owned many models from makers like Kodak, Sony, Canon. From 2.1Mega Pixels up to 12MP, better and cheaper, every year makers come up with new features.

Last year I decided to buy a Reflex semi-professional camera: Canon EOS400D Digital Rebel, an incredibly good SLR camera, remarkably different from the point and shoot simpler cameras that everyone is used to like Sony's T series.

Having said that, what those "simpler" cameras have been offering to the user? For quite some time, I''d say that, besides better resolution, nothing much but portability since they're very small, easy to carry and to use. But now I'm impressed to know about Sony's face detection and smile shutter present in the latest T-series model, like the T200 that I've just bought. I sold my SLR to buy it because I noticed that I was using more my terrible iPhone's camera than my Canon. Why? Because my iPhone is there with me all the time. A powerful yet portable camera is definitely going to be more useful to me. Yes, it's good when you know that you can take breathtaking pictures with an SLR, but if you don't take the camera with you when you go out because you think it's too big, that doesn't help much, right?

Okay, let's get back to the T200. Imagine you're taking a picture of four people and the camera detects all the faces and sets the focus so that no one will look unfocused. Or even better, you're are taking a picture of someone and the shutter doesn't go off until the subject smiles! Yes, the camera can detect when people are smiling! This is pure innovation and Sony is again on the cutting edge.

Let's then see it in action:
Video1:


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Good information about the camera on this Canadian micro site, here.