We heard there was a “groundbreaking” announcement incoming from Nikon next week, but no one was quite sure what it was. Speculation was leaning towards a point-and-shoot with a built-in pico projector, and… it still is. Info from some insiders lends a little more weight to the hypothesis, and even… a code name.

The news is from French print photo mag Chausseur D’Image, who, as a mark of credibility, had the D300 and D300s specs in their July 25 issue, well ahead of schedule. Their next issue features prominently a device called the VP650:

In their august issue, they’re talking with A LOT of confidence (as if it was a sure thing) of a new Nikon product with the code name Nikon VP650 that should be announced in August and shipped in September. This camera would be a compact camera with a LED projector that could project up to 8×12 images in good quality in the dark. They are also stating that this projector could be manufactured by the company FoxLink (it’s in Taiwan).

Sounds reasonable to me. I wouldn’t call it groundbreaking, but I would say it “explores new territory.”