CHOBi CAM ONE Toy DSLR Takes Real Photos, Swaps Lenses

Your DSLR is nice and all.  But it’s too big, too bulky and too heavy to carry for everyday use.  Here’s your new, more convenient everyday DSLR: the CHOBi CAM ONE.

Before you pull out the credit card, know that we’re just kidding.  The diminutive plastic slab is actually just a novelty camera that’s designed to work like a real DSLR, complete with interchangeable lens.  And it’s so tiny, you can cram it up your ear holes when security is confiscating cameras during private film showings.  In fact, you can probably just hang it on a keychain attached to your belt loop and have everyone ignore it — the thing looks like a  plastic toy that does absolutely nothing.

The CHOBi CAM ONE is a miniature digicam, with a plastic body measuring a diminutive 2.5 x 2.5 x 2.6 cm.  Changing a lens is accomplished by slipping a converter over the main optics.  Current add-on options include  a 0/5x wide angle lens, a 2x teleconverter and a fisheye, each of them available separately.

Using the camera, you can snap 2.0 megapixel photos (1,600 x 1,200 pixel images) and VGA-format Xvid clips at 30 fps.  All that digital media is stored in microSD cards which the device actually manages to make room for (with support for up to 32GB).

As small as the CHOBi CAM ONE digicam is, price is far from light.  Price with just the basic lens is ¥9,800 ($120), with the fisheye lens requiring another $60 and the other two clocking in at $60 apiece.

[JTT via Akhabara]