After seeing numerous celebrities along with a few friends, including one expecting mom today, with the Flip Video Ultra or Mino, I’ve been tempted to buy one. It seems ideal for a day-to-day video camera.

Then, I thought about that phrase — who needs a day-to-day video camera that isn’t a new parent or a regular concert goer? Or, more specifically, why do I need it?

Then, I thought about the thing that I do use a lot, which is my camera. I currently carry (on most days) my trusty Sony DSC-H5. The camera has been great so far. I love the pictures it takes. My only complaint is that it’s a big camera. It takes up a lot of room in my backpack, including the charger and other accoutrement. I really wanted a very tiny, decent camera to use as a daily use camera. That way, the H5 comes out for bigger events and places where the 12x optical zoom really comes in handy (baseball games, concerts, etc.)

And thus the bright idea dawned on me: find a still camera that’s roughly the same size as the Flip Video Mino that takes video with similar quality for about the same price. Most still cameras take video and with a 4GB card, I should be able to match the 60 minutes that the Flip supports.

Long story short, and with very little research compared to what I normally do, I bought the Sony Cybershot DSCW120 today.

I just got it, so this isn’t really a review. Instead, I just wanted to point out that I’m amazed at the features this thing has. The camera has two specific features that surprised me. Basically, the camera has image recognition features built in so that in can identify what portions of the shot contain faces and then uses those regions to adjust exposure, focus, etc. This same feature powers a smile recognition filter that allows the camera to snap the photo only when everyone is smiling.

Yes, seriously.

That’s pretty damn cool. The reviews I’ve seen so far seem to indicate that the feature actually works. The manual makes it seem like the camera gives realtime feedback of this detection process. It seems almost amazing to me, and I’m hard to impress.

I don’t know if this is typical these days, but I assume that Sony isn’t smarter than everyone else and that this will be widespread soon if it isn’t already. Pretty cool stuff.

Update: You can see a demo of this feature in a number of YouTube videos for various Sony models (this isn’t a new feature, but it’s new to this line). Here’s one in Japanese that does a good job showing it in action. Notice the square around her head in the view screen. It’s giving live feedback of where it thinks faces are in the picture.

I tested it with a couple of videos playing on my monitor and it took pictures any time the faces made a smile-like pose. I might post that if I can edit it down to something useful.