Shots of Nikon's Android camera surface

Nikon Rumors has pictures of Nikon's forthcoming Android camera, the S800. Resembling a standard compact digicam from the front—with a 25-250mm-equivalent lens—the rear's full-size touchscreen serves up access to Google Play apps. But Cult of Mac's Charlie Sorrel says it'll live or die on its connectivity, and it isn't a cellphone: "GPS is great, and putting Instagram on your camera even better, but if you have to wait to find a Wi-Fi hotspot before posting or Tweeting that photo, a major part of mobile photography is lost."

• [tbetz]

  A lot of people don’t have to go hunting for a hotspot. I carry one around in my pocket; it’s called a smartphone. I only need to go hunting for a Verizon Mobile 3G or 4G signal, and I rarely have to hunt far for that.

  If this camera gives me the same Google+ or Photbucket or Dropbox Instant Upload capability that my Razr Maxx gives me now, but has significantly better performance as a camera, it’s a winner in my book.

• [Rick Keir]

  That should be “Nikon’s RUMORED Android camera”. A rumor is not a real product. See the generic “Microsoft’s not-actually-shipping tablet TOTALLY DESTROYS actually shipping Android and iOS tablets” articles on any tech blog for further egregious examples.

  • [Dlo Burns]

    I think companies “leak” those to gauge public interest.  

  • [Dlo Burns]

    Well I just now saw a press release tv spot on NHK World so it looks pretty real to me.

• [michael b]

  With the rising cost and restrictions on data plans by providers, I’m leaning back towards using wifi and dumping my “smart” phone anyways.  There are wifi hotspots still nearly everywhere and I realized that I have no need of uploading that photo RIGHT NOW, as opposed to waiting.  The reason I grabbed the iPhone to begin with, was because of the camera/phone.  The rest I could care less about.

  • [guitarchitect]

    I have heard it’s possible to go around perfectly using Skype and an iPod Touch – but to me it seems like it could be a bit of a pain. Unless you spend every waking moment near a hot spot, it won’t be nearly as good as cell service :(

• [vonbobo]

  How many people are actually going to sign a contract to pay another $20+ a month just for their camera’s wireless connection?  Can you imagine going over your allotment and getting a $45 camera bill? That would be the losing business model right there.

  “Cult of Mac’s Charlie Sorrel blah blah blah”
  A Mac guy doesn’t think this Android product is worth anything? Big surprise there. 

  • [Itsumishi]

    If this was a cellphone I’d be selling my current Android tomorrow and putting the sim card in this. 

    I’d much rather a good pocketable camera with an average phone attached than the other way around. Yes the iPhone 4s has a good camera considering it’s a phone, No it doesn’t have a good camera as a standalone device.

• [mralistair]

  Surely you’d just turn on your data sharing on your smartphone and share the connection?  Why have a whole new subscription for pretty occasional use?

  • [Rob Beschizza]

    That’s just the thing: with an eyefi card, you can now install an app on iOS or Android that sucks the pics right off the much nicer camera you already have.

    • [HarveyBoing]

      Yeah, but since we’re just speculating on rumor anyway, why not speculate that the Android install on this camera will offer camera-specific features not found on your iOS or Android device?

      I can think of all sorts of cool things Android running directly on the camera could accomplish that you don’t get just by downloading the photos from the camera to your phone.

    • [regeya]

      Not to mention Bluetooth cameras.

• [gpvillamil]

  I think the most exciting thing about this is the possibility to control camera functions from a user-developed app. I work on exhibit design and development at a well-known science museum, and the ability to have full program control over a decent, cheap camera with communications ability would be terrific.

  Right now we use industrial cameras, which can be externally controlled from another computer, or Canon cameras with hacked firmware. In both cases, we need another device to actually run the exhibit and control the camera.

  If this product from Nikon actually allows a user app to control the camera, then we could run the entire exhibit solely on a single device.

• [guitarchitect]

  Can one of the camera manufacturers finally just put a phone into the camera? 

• [autark]

  Funny cuz I just saw this

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIRBxRlsYR0

• [Yar-ren D.]

  You can tell who the iphone commenters are. They don’t realize that most android phones have tethering and portable hotspot capabilities. The camera would work off your android phone’s 3g/4g connection. 

  • [James Maidment]

    iPhones can also be wifi hotspots.

• [iceage_va]

  I had a surreal moment when I read that as Nixon’s Android camera. Some alternative world where we had the Nixon SDHC card with his paranoid delusions ready to upload to Youtube.

• [HarveyBoing]

  I just bought a Samsung Galaxy media player, to replace a couple of 4GB MP3 players that are getting a bit tired.

  What is my favorite feature? That it is not a phone.

  Claiming that a product will fail just because it doesn’t happen to be a phone is, well…silly.

• [regeya]

  I suppose that sort of makes sense…I guess…there’s a chance the optics would be better on one of these than on a smartphone, the big screen would make for a nice viewfinder, and they wouldn’t have to rely solely on their own firmware.  Might be nice to have a slightly nicer point-and-shoot that I can potentially swap out the manufacturer’s camera or camcorder app for a nicer third-party app. I mean, I like my Droid and Camera ZOOM FX for point-and-shoot stuff, but would like to see more camera options. How long until prosumer and DSLR Android options hit?

• [Christopher Kirkman]

  “putting Instagram on your camera even better”

  No, no it’s not.

• [Dlo Burns]

  Not only could you geotag you photos, you can geocache too! 
  Skype in high def! Make your concert videos (less) blurry!
  Play angrybirds while you bird watch!Also since every McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks / any coffee shop, and cheap hotel offer wifi it’s not really that far out of reach. But on the other hand the average American is exceedingly lazy.