Nikon Corp. has developed a couple of new digital still cameras with built-in wireless LAN adapters, the company said Thursday in a statement.
At a basic level the Wi-Fi connection can be used in place of a USB cable to transfer images to a personal computer for storage or to a Wi-Fi printer for printing. It’s also possible to set the camera to automatically transfer each picture to the PC immediately after it’s taken. In this case, the image is also stored in the camera’s memory so the camera’s temporary buffer memory can be cleared and shooting can continue while images are being transferred.
Communication can take place two ways: in ad hoc mode a direct connection is established between the camera and a host device such as a personal computer and in infrastructure mode the connection runs through a wireless LAN base station to a device connected to the network.
The Coolpix P1 and P2 cameras, which will be available from later this month, are largely identical. The only significant difference between the two cameras is the resolution at which they take pictures. The P1 is an 8-megapixel camera while the P2 is a 5-megapixel model. In practice, this means full-resolution images from the P1 are 3,264 pixels by 2,448 pixels and those from the P2 are 2,592 pixels by 1,944 pixels.
It takes about eight seconds to transfer a full-resolution image from the P1 and about four seconds to do the same with the P2, the Tokyo-based camera maker said.
Other features of the cameras include a 3.5X optical zoom and a 2.5-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor. The on-screen menu can be switched between English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean and Russian. Both cameras measure 91 mm by 60 mm by 39 mm and weigh 170 grams. Battery life is 180 shots for the P1 and 190 shots for the P2.
Both will be available in the U.S. later this month. The P1 will cost US$550 and the P2 will cost $400.
The two Wi-Fi-equipped cameras are the first such cameras on the market with such a function, according to Nikon, but the idea isn’t new. In 2002, Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. showed a prototype digital camera with built-in Wi-Fi at the Ceatec show in Japan but it never came to market. Nikon itself has come close with Wi-Fi adapter units for its professional-class D2H and D2X cameras and Eastman Kodak Co. offers an optional Wi-Fi card for its EasyShare One camera.