The Sony Ericsson Walkman phone takes photos at 2 megapixels. My Sony Ericsson (k508i) takes photos at 1.3 megapixels.

The Walkman phone sells in Australia for a thousand dollars. My phone was 220 dollars. My guess is that they'll use the 1.3 megapixel camera, simply because my PSP didn't cost me a thousand dollars.

I believe that the ad was referring to, #1, the ability to view pictures on the PSP taken with certain Sony digital cameras, and #2, the wi-fi picture-sharing feature. A digital camera is simply an unneeded add-on that probably never got off the ground.

If you think about it, sony hasn't had that many ads that highlight the features of the psp, right? (Think of the "portable carpet"/"portable nut" ads)

What zack mentioned could be a key feature for a lot of people. Why would they only say view/store/delete in the add if you could actually take the picture as well.
For example: TAKE VIEW NO WAY DELETE

If it was for a camera, they gave no indication that the psp (or an attachment) was taking any pictures at all. It sounds like they are just browsing pictures they already took a while back (hence the "I dont remember taking that").

While I agree with Lexiticus that the camera would be more or less useless, there could be some interesting functions if implemented properly.

For example, some sort of video messaging over wifi (assuming bandwith allows for it) or custom pics/avatars for online games made instantly. It would be some sort of weird wireless webcam. The problem is, it seems to be another one of those things that everyone would need to have for it to be that fun. Frankly, I don't see that happening.

Like many assesories, the average user likely would not want it badly or need it at all.

Also, that add was very very odd. It definatly did not appeal to me.

zack, that makes perfect sense!
I feel foolish now.

I think it's safe to say that with the current state and capabilities of 2.60, the length of time it's been since a firmware update and the changes needed it'll amost certianly require 3.00. 2.60 just doesn't have anything built into it that would allow a camera to run plug and play, unless homebrew was made to support it.

As for price and megapixel, I would be happy with anything 2MP up, and be willing to pay around £50-£100 depending on the MP, but given the PSP's screen is 480x272, it's possible it might be made to fit that screen size, and if so, it better be a fecking cheap camera.

Definetly something I'm looking forward to,a nd to see the ads in London is great, finally the UK might get something first instead of the US and Japan!

Zack said...
I believe that the ad was referring to, #1, the ability to view pictures on the PSP taken with certain Sony digital cameras, and #2, the wi-fi picture-sharing feature. A digital camera is simply an unneeded add-on that probably never got off the ground.

Why spend money placing an ad which gives people no idea about anything like that, just to show that you can do that.

It's in the PSP's manual, Sony ar ehardly going to spend money advertising it are they?

My guess is the camera attaches to the bottom and not USB

That was my thought about it too. Why would Sony run an ad compaign highlighting an obscure feature of the PSP?

Well, unlike some of you here, I am looking foward to this. Considering my current DC is a 0.62MP with 0.6 shutter speed, the damn thing is essentially a webcam that runs on AAA's.

At least this way, it will be decent.

whats the cheapest camera made right now that will plug into the psp??

I notice I have a 1.5 and it has a Digital Camera folder on the menu.

I don't believe my fuji DC is compatable with it.

I'm Stuart, the user who submitted the photo shown in the story above. It wasn't actually me who took it, it was a guy named Russell Bulmer and you can see his original photo here on flickr.

There's also an undugg story here on digg.com. If you'd like some more speculation about what the ad means, please digg the story and encourage more people to voice their opinions.

Regarding the comment from Zack, I think it's possible that the ad is simply referring to the native photo viewing capabilities of the PSP but I also agree with huds601 and Jake, I doubt Sony would place an ad for that reason, particularly so long after the initial PSP release.

I haven't really formed an opinion yet about what it could mean but the point that strikes me is that this photo was taken on a train in London on 23.2.06, not a train in Tokyo, nor any official announcement.

I hope it is a camera for the PSP though. Myself and a lot of other PSP users I know would buy it regardless of whether it's low quality and useless, if only for the same reason that a lot of ipod users have more than one.

here is my tranlation of the ad. it is someone thinking in their head of which pics to keep. the first pic they saw they deleted it, second was too shocking (maybe upskirt) and had to be deleted. third one was when they were prolly drunk or hit the button by mistake and they deleted that one too. the last one was neat so they decided to save it for later viewing.
there thats done. the ad made perfect sense to me.
So ummm there's rumours going around at G.A.P. that this cam will have a 3.1 megapixel resolution. hell my carppy fone has a 2.6 mega pixel and it only cost me $50 with a plan. I think it would be a great accessory, especially when sony comes out with the email client in 3.1. Ya gotta remember that these things take time, also as i was reading through older threads, there was something said about the firmware already containing the neccessary files to make the cam werk on 1.0. So confused yet, i'm not. But the cam will be a neat add on.IMO

i just cant wait for the cell phone add on where you insert your sim card and use a head set. or a mic, id love to talk mess to ppl on infected. ..gps is cool to.

i think its suppose the add is suppose to mean:
[person VIEWS pic],[person says: NO WAY], [person DELETS pic], [person VIEWS another pic], [person says OMG], [person DELETS], [VIEWS pic], [says I DONT REMEMBER TAKING THAT], [DELETS pic], [VIEW pic], [says AT LAST A DECENT ONE], [STORES pic HERE].

if you read the capitals you get the add, only my assumption tho..

It still seems odd, the fact it says "store here". If you have a photo on your PSP it's already stored on there, and there's no way without homebrew of moving it unless you have it plugged into a computer.

I still think it's a camera attachment, and 3.00 will contain some sort of program to take photos and save them where you like on your Mem stick Duo.

The camera idea is probably the most likely idea. However it could possibly be some kind of feature allowing a PSP to communicate with mobiles and browsing the pictures on a MS Duo inside a Sony Ericsson phone, then sending them to the PSP to save on the memory card. Think kinda like picture sharing between PSPs, but getting it from a Sony Ericsson phone instead of another PSP.

And another thing, I think we all get the phrasing of the advert, it doensn't need spelling out 7 or 8 times, all they've done is removed the punctuation.

NO WAY
OH MY GOD
I DON'T REMEMBER TAKING THAT
AT LAST A DECENT ONE

I dunno, I'm not very interested in a camera addon.

Hmm, this is a strange one. I think theres a sort of subliminal message in there if you look at it for a moment and think outside the box.

If you remove the "DELETE VIEW" from it your left with:

NO WAY, OH MY GOD, I DON'T REMEMBER TAKING THAT, AT LAST A DECENT ONE

I cant figure out the STORE HERE part though. Interesting to think a camera could be on the way, but I would have thought it more than likely that we would have heard ramblings from Japan first! Guess we have to keep our fingers crossed and see what happens eh?

Nice work on spotting it and getting a pic posted though.

a firmware 3.0 feature?

takagawa-kun, you beat me to it, lol

Firmware issues are gonna screw this up.

Delete view and another thing delete view , I think we all delete view get the phrasing of delete view the advert, it doesn't delete view need spelling out 7 or 8 delete view times, all they've done is delete view removed the punctuation.

lol PSPages, but I just noticed now, this is what we're supposed to see:

VIEW, NO WAY, DELETE.
VIEW, OH MY GOD, DELETE.
VIEW, I DON'T REMEMBER TAKING THAT, DELETE.
VIEW, AT LAST A DECENT ONE, STORE.
HERE.

ig it works on 1.5 whit a program and cost les than 50 us i will buy 1

sure erny, that'll happen. right after Sony allows us to play unsigned homebrews, haha

The price would depend on the quality of the camera. A 2mpx one would cost more than a 620x480 camera (usually found in old camphones).

The 1.5 part...not gonna happen :)

I was just thinking that, "If people can write programs to access the usb for file trasnfer, why hasn't anyone really concentrated on getting that to werk?" it prolly is a great big task to do. but i read that if i change my psp "digital camera" files to the same ones that i get from my (mercury slim) micro cam. well they show up perfectly, because they are formatted the same way. well the naming of the files. srry but i just started lua and cant even begin to think how it would be done..

a keyboard already exists and its on this site...

pspupdates.qj.net/ 2005_05_14_archive.html.

and thers another one

http://www.darkplanets.co.uk/psp/psp-keyboard.asp

Mikepint,
Most people know about that keyboard but I have never seen it in person, I don't know anyone who has tried it, there doesn't seem to be a software interface for it (drivers anyone?) and I really don't think that there is any evidence that this item has even started to ship to consumers. ANYONE VERIFY THIS?

As for the camera, it better be more than 1.2MP. Sony's cellphones should not have better tech in them than their portable do-it-all device.

Could they have waited any longer...seriously. I wanted a camera attachment for nearly a year now and finally they are making some progress, lol. And I just bought a camera cause i was fed up with waiting...

Damn...

Well, im still curious what quality pics it will take. Im betting 1024X768 minimum.

what ever it is they need to fire there marketing department and hire me or another semi tard to make a decent ad.

mike, i think that keyboard is a fake, i havent seen sony promoting one yet...

The keyboards have been rumored since before the PSP was released. As far as I know(and i keep track cause that was the other desired accessorie i wanted) a keyboard has never been officially sold for the PSP.

If it had been, i would have bought it already.

View, OMG this add is the dumbest add I have ever seen...

DELETE!

Untill one worked on a 1.5 I can pretty much say anyone who was smart enough to keep thier PSP at 1.5 and wait to play GTA will tell sony to shove thier camera up thier ass untill the firmware is hacked again. Lol @ the thought of anyone giving up thier 1.5 PSP for anything like that. My digital camera is just fine as far as that goes...

I do not care too much about the specifications of an upcoming camera for the PSP at this point, it will likely not be as good as a digital camera anyway. If a camera addon for the PSP system is released, I will be very interested in finding out how long people would take to create programs that work with it.

MikePint - while several online retailers are selling preorders for the keyboard, its release date has been pushed back 4 or 5 times in the last 6 months. Right now this is not a keyboard for the PSP available.

Here's what i think the ad means. It seems obvious to me but no one has seemed to hit it on the head... anyone who has looked at pictures on a psp knows what view delete blah blah. Here's the Story. IT's a guy, talking to himself playing on on psp, running through the huge pile of snapshots from his new psp camera! he's looking at one, ergo view, that one sucks ergo, delete, notice how the delete views sync up, viewing one, deleting, view delete, view delete, view, ah ha the tricky one, the one he actually wants to keep, oh my god i don't remember taking that one, so after he finished viewing it he stored the image to his memory stick. just my opinion, took me a few minutes to figure it out, definitely not a rubicks cube

A camera attachment on the PSP is next to USELESS, For the price i'm sure will be charged for the cheap quality camera (How could you possibly add a decent lens, or Flash with "manual" settings, not to mention optical zoom HAH) It would be a joke, (Camera phones are NOT decent quality, contrary to what you might think)

The only use I see from this is if its more like an eye toy, A motion tracking camera designed to be used with GAMES. Not for taking pictures.

Ive got a 250$ camera that I'm sure will put the PSP camera to shame, and its not even that good.

I'd love to have a camera on my PSP, would make the picture function on PSP alot more useful. I don't care if you need firmware 3.0 or not, people are too attached to homebrews.

Congratulations on getting ripped off 250$ for a bad camera, Lexiticus.

" Congratulations on getting ripped off 250$ for a bad camera, Lexiticus."

I don't quite understand what you are getting at, But what i said was

I Have a camera I spent 250$ on, That will be FOR SURE better than the PSP one

And I don't even consider it a great camera. Maybe you think anything over 3 megapixels is a great camera, But I'm a little more picky than that

its a Casio Exilim Z120
7.2MP
3x optical zoom
Small and convenient for taking skiing (and to other risky venues where my 5050 would be in danger), but it doesn't even hold ground against my other camera, an Olympus 5050Z.

Who cares about your crappy Casio Lexiticus.

" Who cares about your crappy Casio Lexiticus."

Thats what i'm saying, My camera isn't anything special, And Neither will the PSP one be.

unless its used more for video, or motion tracking I don't see it being very usefull at all.

Actually, the camera will be very useful...to anybody who manufactures and markets it. The novelty value of taking crappy pictures with a PSP system alone will cause most PSP owners to desire this peripheral, and by the time the camera gets old and people realize that it is not better than a standard digital camera most people will already own it. All that will be needed is an adequate amount of hype and advertising.

Of course, this is just a worst case scenario, for all we know it may come packed with features and software for video chat over internet chat protocols. This peripheral may have potential if properly implemented and could possibly work with some games. Also, perhaps taking pictures or short videos of a scene using a device you usually have on hand and never would forget to bring with you by attaching a small accesory and pushing a few buttons would work for some people.

I personally will pass on purchasing this device, I suppose a lot of people can use it but I already have a decent digital camera with audio and short video recording capabilities. Also, the extra bulk will...I'll just cut the act here, I am not ashamed to state that I will not purchase it since it will require a firmware update to a version that does not allow me to use homebrew programs. Hey, there is nothing wrong with that.

im danveer

hey u jake there is only one input for the psp and that is the usb how come the cam be attached to the bottom are you mad no sence