[shuttertalk]

Have Nikon produced a monstrosity or a stroke of genius with their camera/Android hybrid? Basically they've built the S800c, a camera interface on top of a smartphone OS (Android Gingerbread) which takes advantage of all the connectivity and functionality already present in the OS. This means users can connect easily to wifi networks, browse websites, and probably run a plethora of apps for anything you can think of - file transfer, image management, social networking - all within the camera.

Dpreview have published a first look...

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/3638044...first-look


What do you think?

[matthew]

It's an interesting idea, and it gives the promise of letting P&S cameras do what SLRs have done for years – let someone other than the camera maker decide how to process the photo. This particular camera is limited by its hardware to an old operating system, but hopefully it will be successful enough to prove the validity of the idea.

[NT73]

It seems as though it is using a smartphone OS, but is not a phone.
A bit like buying a vacuum cleaner with no suck.

That is me being facetious. Being quite deaf a mobile phone is a no no for me. (Nowhere near enough volume and the system causes a terrible buzz when using a hearing aid.)

[Toad]

Not thin enough for a phone. Swing and a miss. This is, however, a promising direction. My iPhone is always on me. My camera is not.

[shuttertalk]

Another very sexy looking alternative - Samsung have unveiled their own version of their cameraphone. Samsung are in a very unique position here in that they are both an established camera maker and also smartphone maker so you know you are getting the best of both worlds.

The camera side is very compelling - 23-480mm equiv zoom and a 16 megapixel 1/2.3″ BSI CMOS sensor.
The "phone" side as well runs the very latest version of Android OS (JellyBean 4.1) vs the 2 generations old Gingerbread employed by Nikon. Additionally it has 3G/4G/Wifi versions which means you could have absolute connectivity wherever you go. Plus, they are bundling it with cloud storage for automatic backup and sharing of photos.

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/08/29/sams...meraphone/


Very sexy actually... wouldn't mind taking a closer look.

[matthew]

That whistling sound we heard was the sales of the generically-named Coolpix 800c shifting over to the new Galaxy camera…

It's interesting that the Samsung can do everything except for make normal phone calls. Apparently they're still segmenting the market slightly, although it's certainly a much more interesting option than the Nikon. Granted, I've yet to see either, but I've liked the Samsung cameras that I've used so far, and theirs is the camera that I'd be looking at of the two.