Android based camera from Nikon: Coolpix S800

http://nikonrumors.com/2012/08/08/the-coolpix-s800-will-be-the-first-android-based-camera-from-nikon.aspx/

by esolyt • 14 years ago

29 41 14 years ago

beering• 14 years ago

Every new device launched with an obsolete version of Android is part of the price that Google pays for making Android as free as it is. And frankly, I don't see the market for a slow, buggy Android experience tied to a Nikon camera.

esolyt3• 14 years ago

Actually that is the reason these devices can launch at all. Nothing was stopping Nikon from using Ice Cream Sandwich. Apparently, they just don't care that much about the user experience. Those who do are free to use the latest version of Android.

soperj2• 14 years ago

They probably wouldn't have launched at all if Android wasn't as free as it is. It'll be interesting to if this will work.

revelation• 14 years ago

This is not a slow, buggy Android that happens to come with a camera. This is first and foremost a camera.

And when its running Android, that can be win win for everyone involved, if Nikon makes the hardware sufficiently open. Anything is probably better than having to flash your custom firmware through a freaking IR led.

esolyt3• 14 years ago

But still, people are going to run apps on it and they are going to see the user interface everyday (which was vastly improved with Ice Cream Sandwich). They would never release this with Gingerbread if they really cared about user experience.

pigubrco• 14 years ago

Interesting...the one nice thing I do like about the Google+ app running on Android is how it automatically uploads my pictures to a private folder online. Many times, I have come back from long hikes but the pictures remain in my slr for a few days because I was too lazy/tired to upload my pictures from the SD card to the computer. Having this functionality to automatically upload your pictures once you get home would be nice.

miahi• 14 years ago

For the "antisocial", you can do the same with Dropbox.

esolyt3• 14 years ago

In fact, I prefer Dropbox's Camera Upload. With Dropbox, when I go home and sit in front of my computer, I find my photos as actual files existing on my computer. Google, on the other hand, is trying to make it very convenient to share them on Google+ and very inconvenient to download and store them locally. They don't even sync it to Google Drive as files. They are trying to eliminate the concept of "file" from the users' mind, just like Apple.

CrazedGeek• 14 years ago

Eye-Fi[1]'s Wi-Fi enabled SD cards already do this, and it's beautiful. Only downsides are cost and that you have to turn the camera on once you get home.

[1] http://www.eye.fi/

kawera• 14 years ago

Finally, apps for cameras. Thom Hogan has been advocating this for some time now[1] and the success of the CHDK[2] somehow shows us that a lot of photographers may be interested in this. I hope Nikon starts a trend with this camera and go all the way to Android enabled DSLRs.

[1] http://bythom.com/design2010.htm

[2] http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK

Some ideas: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/august31/levoy-opensource...

pjmlp3• 14 years ago

Does this really make sense?

I mean, a camera is for taking pictures and the corresponing OS should only care about the job of taking pictures and show them later on.

Why do I need a fullfledge Android system running on my camera?

This seems more like a toy experiment.

akashshah• 14 years ago

There are so many things a camera could do that it can't right now: * Sharing photos on Facebook, Twitter * Post processing pictures (like Instagram) * Automatic backup to Dropbox * Live stream videos

pjmlp3• 14 years ago

That is what computers are for.

soperj2• 14 years ago

I'm sure people had the same complaints about smart phones.

GuiA2• 14 years ago

>Does this really make sense?

I will ask the same question, but for a different reason— non-DSLR cameras are just becoming obsolete. Go to any touristy place, and you'll see more people using smartphones (and surprisingly, tablets) than point&shoot.

No teenager today would want to buy a p&s when they can use their phone, which produces similar (or better) image quality and already has apps/sharing/etc.

ars2• 14 years ago

There is no way a phone can make an image of comparable quality to a reasonable p&s. Just the size of the lens and imaging element alone should tell you that.

hk_kh• 14 years ago

> This seems more like a toy experiment.

And a really cool one. Never thought about programming a camera to do things it does not by default?

pjmlp3• 14 years ago

Actually no, personally I rather spend my time taking pictures.

nl• 14 years ago

I remember asking why anyone would ever want a camera on their phone?! What kind of stupid idea is that??!

mibbitier• 14 years ago

I wanted to write some stop frame motion animation software for my DSLr but never got round to hacking the firmware. This would make software like that possible and easy.

Not everyone is using their camera in a very simple way. Why not have software on there doing face recognition, panoramics, stop frame, etc etc etc

cageface2• 14 years ago

This kind of thing is the reason I've started boning up on Android development. With the sheer volume of phones on the market and the versatility of the OS in completely unexpected applications I think there's going to be a lot of demand for people with Android skills in the future.

zalew• 14 years ago

yep, same here

TazeTSchnitzel• 14 years ago

I'd love to learn it, but Java and XML scare me away.

cageface2• 14 years ago

It feels kind of verbose some times but with a good IDE like IntelliJ it's really not that bad. Hopefully Kotlin will take off on Android and eliminate a lot of the verbosity.

Obj-C on iOS isn't much better really though.

scotty79• 14 years ago

I was seriously let down that my new washing machine doesn't run on android.

sadlyNess• 14 years ago

This might only work if it remains a camera; tactile buttons, a non attention-stealing screen, its own app store(custom camera apps), and the apps function more like plugins/addons than apps. Otherwise it'll be just another android phone with a better camera instead of a simpler CDHK.

wisty3• 14 years ago

Some random camera stats:

The iPhone has a 1/3.2" sensor (9.7x crop factor), a 4.28mm length f/2.4 max aperture.

That's like a 43mm f/23 full frame (basically, apature scales with crop factor just like length); or a 26mm f/14.5 APC-C.

Compared to a 1/2.3" sensor (which the S800 is likely to pack) it's like a 6mm f/3.3 lens (43mm full frame, as they don't like to mention how apature scales). The advantage of a S800 will be the range (25mm -> uselessly long without a tripod and good light), compared to the 43mm prime iPhone; apature and image quality will be similar. Also, the Nikon will have niceties like vibration reduction, a flash (maybe), smarter focusing / metering, better processing (maybe).

The real question is, who would want one? I'd say - people with dumb phones who carry cameras; and hipsters who want to be seen with a camera while they play Angry Birds on the bus. It might be bigger in non-US markets, where phones don't appear so cheap (due to hidden carrier costs).

arrrg2• 14 years ago

Does aperture scale with the crop factor? I don’t think that’s the case. f/2.3 will always let the same light in. As you (hypothetically) scale up the focal length (the numerator), you also scale up the pupil size (the denominator), so the aperture remains constant.

The effect on DoF is different, sure, but not on light – and I think with those kinds of cameras you are more interested in their ability to let in light than their ability to produce shallow DoF (that’s pretty much a given for any small sensor camera).

Gring2• 14 years ago

If you scale up everything, the aperture stays constant, correct.

But since the larger sensor can work with much more light, it therefore has a much higher S/N-ratio. If you switch that camera to a higher aperture, you get less light, leading to a lower ratio again.

So the lower S/N-ratio of the smaller sensor could be estimated as a higher aperture. Whether the numbers calculated by wisty are correct, I don't know, though.

rrreese2• 14 years ago

Actually the iPhone 4S has a 35mm equivalent lens, while the 4 had a 29mm equivalent: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/IPHONE4S/IPHONE4SA.HTM

I'm not sure what you mean by aperture scaling with crop factor either?

wisty3• 14 years ago

> I'm not sure what you mean by aperture scaling with crop factor either?

DoF, the ability to take fast photos (due to better ISO) and diffraction can scale with crop factor. Maybe it's not a perfect equivalence, but neither is focal length.

dave1010uk• 14 years ago

Could anyone who knows about optics say how this compares to Nokia's 808 PureView camera/phone?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_808_PureView

fyolnish• 14 years ago

There's a rumor site focusing exclusively on Nikon? : o

lmm• 14 years ago

That isn't really any crazier than a rumour site focusing exclusively on Apple

rrreese2• 14 years ago

Not only that, there are rumour sites for most of the camera systems:

http://www.canonrumors.com/ http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/ http://www.fujirumors.com/ etc

Gring2• 14 years ago

Don't forget http://leicarumors.com/

Nicole060• 14 years ago

Adding android to their p&s cameras is not what I expected from them. Nikon has a huge problem to tackle and adding android to their p&s is not the solution.

While Nikon makes great DSLR (but not necessarily better than the competition), their point and shoot cameras aren't any good. Not when compared to the Canon S95 in the cheap segment. Or the Fuji X10 in the expensive segment. Nikon can't even get the mirror-less interchangeable lens system right : what were they thinking with the Nikon 1 ? the sensor is way too small, much smaller than the already small sensors of the Four Third system from Olympus/Panasonic and the size of the sensor is one of the most important thing to consider when it comes to image quality. Canon obviously knows better than Nikon and their entry to that market will feature an APS-C sensor.

Whatever it is that Nikon does, they do not understand photography anymore, apart from the few who work in their DSLR division.

Android based camera from Nikon: Coolpix S800

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