After quite a bit of speculation over the last couple of weeks, Japanese-based camera giants Nikon Corporation haven finally officially lifted the lid on their new range of Coolpix-S compact digital cameras, one of which stays true to the rumor mill and features a fully functional version of the Android mobile operating system. Nikon is billing the release as proposing new possibilities for digital cameras and with the inclusion of Android and additional features, we would be inclined to agree.
The company has also released two additional units along the Android powered S800c camera, the S6400 red model that comes bundled with a backside illumination CMOS image sensor and packs in 16 million pixels and 12x zoom, as well as the S01 offering that brings consumers’ immense portability with a body that is smaller than a business card and is being described as "combining the simplicity of a cell phone with the advanced capability for expression of a camera". Both models look great, but it’s the Android powered S800c that will gain the most interest.
On the face of things, the S800c looks just like any additional digital camera, but its physical form hides the fact that Nikon have loaded it with the powerful and extremely popular Android OS as well as building in Wi-Fi compatibility in a build that they hope will see consumers using the camera in a similar fashion to how mobile smartphones are used over the internet. From a technical point of view, the S800c is an extremely capable little piece of kit and comes with a backside illumination CMOS sensor ,a pixel count of 16-million and NIKKOR lens with 10x optical zoom for capturing those long distant shots. It seems that camera companies like Nikon are feeling the pressure that is being applied to them by smartphones that have extremely capable cameras as their own literature advises that the S800c captures the sharp and blur-free images that a smartphone can’t.
In addition to Android and Wi-Fi, users can expect to be able to record full high-definition video on the device as well as being able to directly upload all captured content to social networking sites, which I’m sure a lot of users will take advantage of in this socially connected environment we find ourselves in. At $349.95, the S800c certainly contains the price tag to match it’s premium features but then again, if this is really the next-generation of compact digital cameras then it could just be worth it.
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