CES 2011: Casio pulls Tryx from its sleeve

The concept behind the Tryx is a compact camera that can be held and manipulated in different ways for different shooting situations.

The frame of the camera body swings free and can be held like a camcorder with a flip-out LCD. The frame itself can be a kind of tripod.

The whole thing is about 0.59 inches thick, and it's extremely light and slim in the hand. On first impression, it almost looks like a toy. The frame is relatively thin, but handling it the camera felt solid. It starts to make sense when you hold it like a camcorder. The Tryx allows for a left or right grip of the frame, and it feels more stabilized than holding a traditional point-and-shoot to record video.

Aside from the obvious, Casio's got a few interesting things going on inside the Tryx. It has a 12.1 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, which could potentially boost performance in low light situations. There's an in-camera HDR mode that digitally processes to create one image with an HDR look. The Tryx is capable of recording 1080 HD videos at 30 fps and high-speed video at reduced resolution and 240 fps.

We weren't allowed to photograph the UI since it wasn't finalized. The touch screen is compact with just two slender buttons to the side. There's an elongated shutter button and an on/off switch. Digital zoom can be operated on screen. The Tryx's fixed focal length lens has a maximum aperture of f/2.8.

We'll be interested to see how well it catches on with consumers. Once you understand how the camera moves and what the applications are, it seems appealing. Will the lack of an optical zoom be a turn off, or will consumers who snapped up zoom-less Flip cams look past that and see it as a versatile still and video shooter? And for a slim point-and-shoot loaded with HD video, the price isn't bad either.