Samsung launches cameras with two LCDs -- front and back

For whatever reason, taking pictures of yourself remains an incredibly popular pastime for a variety of consumers. It's also a terribly inaccurate one, with the usual result being an out-of-focus shots of 3/4 of your head.

Putting aside trial and error as the primary way of dealing with this, Samsung offers a new solution for this troubling dilemma: Mounting an LCD screen on the front of the camera in addition to the usual screen on the back, so the subject of the photo can see what he's shooting. This LCD touchscreen can simply be tapped when you're ready to snap the picture, rather than forcing you to fumble and find the shutter button somewhere on the top of the camera.

As another point of usefulness, the two cameras can also use this front-facing screen to playback video animations designed to get the attention of small children during picture time.

A few other cameras on the market have features that let someone in front of the camera preview the picture -- namely models with a hinged, "swing-out" LCD that can be positioned for view from any angle -- but these Samsung cameras are the first known models on the market with two LCDs, potentially giving two people a look at the image preview.

It all sounds a little frivolous, but I am actually more excited about the "for the kids" angle than the self-portrait selling point. Getting children to look anywhere near a camera when you're trying to take their picture is often a fool's errand. Being able to enlist an animated clown to help out in that endeavor sounds like absolutely fabulous news for the new parent on the block.

Unfortunately, these cameras -- the Samsung ST500 and ST550 -- seem to have no release date set for the American market, at least not yet. At Amazon UK the cameras are listed for 249 pounds and 299 pounds ($411 and $493, respectively), so they aren't altogether cheap.