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Nikon Releases WiFi Digital Camera
LegendOfLink writes "Nikon just revealed the world's first WiFi-enabled camera! It runs 802.11b/g and allows users to send files over a network. From the blurb: "Wireless shooting automatically transfers each picture to a selected computer as soon as it is shot. Pictures can then be viewed with Nikon's powerful yet fun-to-use and easy PictureProject software. And wireless printing delivers the convenience of cable-free direct printing to PictBridge-compatible printers. All these functions are easy to implement, too. Just set them up with the Wizard utility to enjoy easy wireless capabilities that add outstanding flexibility to the digital photography experience. "
Anything that makes porn easier to make is alright in my book.
WTF they released a wifi camera like a year ago, at least!
This sounds more like an advertisement than anything actually useful... generally, if it includes the words 'powerful' 'fun-to-use' and 'easy' it's an advertisement. Might also be in an ad for a hooker >.>
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
Isn't this a WiFi enabled camera from Kodak?
a th=6434&pq-locale=en_US
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-p
I can't help but think that adding wifi will seriously hurt battery life.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Honest honey! I don't know where ~those~ pictures came from!!! Honey?? Let me back in the house....
Agile Artisans
We've seen plenty of wifi-enabled cameras before (such as the Canon EOS-1Ds), but this appears to be the first _consumer_ camera with wifi.
Will they market it like those Centrino laptops that magically allow you to share your photos and do full screen, perfect quality video messaging over the internet while you're in the middle of nowhere with nary a cellphone tower, wireless access point or sign of civilization to be seen anywhere?
http://www.techweb.com/wire/26800325
Obviously people don't like having to trail wires and connect peripherals to their PC every time they want to get data from them. Bluetooth solved this problem for PDA's, phones and the like and WiFi seems like the sensible choice for the kind of volume data transfer required for todays digital cameras. If they've equipped this thing with a good enough battery that it can make standard camera running times, it should be a useful step forward for consumers. If they haven't managed to overcome that problem, it could be a costly mistake (I don't the inconvenience of connecting devices outweighs significantly shorter battery life on a camera..)
Business Voyeur
My, Wi-Fi camera! Never even thought of anything like that. It's something new for me. It's amazing, a camera with networking. So, what's next? :D
Waik, http://waik.sourceforge.net
I think Slashdot has slid down hill more in the past 2 weeks than it has in the past 2 years. This has to be the 5th "advertisement" article that I've seen in 3 or 4 days. And it isn't even new technology as many posters have already noted.
The gendarmes can confiscate the camera, but the photos are already on a server outside the country's jurisdiction. This should be handy for journalists, demonstrators, etc.
I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
should we start calling this place $lashdot alredy?
While you are correct in that Nikon made the first wlan addon to a camera, that was years ago. All the major brands have them now.
What may be new is actually shooting from a distant location using wlan.
News will be made when they nolonger encrypt the white balance information in their RAW format. Wake me up then.
-- Instant Karma's gonna get you! [320848 = 2*2*2*2*11*1823]
Does it run Linux?
Imagine it: four guys sitting in a room, playing deathmatch on their cameras. Screw PSP: cameras are the new gaming rigs!
I'm pretty sure Ricoh had this a few years ago.. like in 2001. I think its the RDC-i700.
The road between democracy and tyranny is paved with secrecy in the name of security.
Man, I just realized that there are _way_ too many colons in that post. It's a veritable colorama, a procto-party if you will.
This...
...actually means:
I can see it now...
Honestly, I could write a book.
Does this mean i'll have to install an anti-virus on my camera, too?
Nikon was the first to come out with a camera that was WiFi-capable. Nikon's D2H, which came out in Q3 2003, was also introduced with the Nikon WT-1 (and WT-1A in America), which attached to the camera and provided 802.11b transmission right from the camera. Nikon's latest offerings, the D2Hs and the D2x, are compatible with the new WT-2 and WT-2A, which support 802.11g and some new features. While the camera itself does not have internal WiFi support, it was designed with that function in mind and the optional accessory enabled that. Canon also offers the WFT-E1 transmitter for the EOS-1Dmk2 cameras as well as the EOS-20D. This was introduced after Nikon, however it supports WiFi as well as Ethernet. Mike Isler
Mike
and thus, the internet was flooded with pictures of trinkets in people's bedrooms
Bluetooth is enough if someone really wants to transfer wire-less-ly. Its like Pimp My Ride with WiFi. I don't think its THAT necessary.
While the previously mentioned free WiFi in that area will enable your pictures to be beamed right to us, you still can't photograph something that doesn't exist.
shut up and go back to michaelmoore.com, where tough guy posturing consists of tucking your penis between your legs and prancing around in large cotton panties
What, you think this is called "Slashdot: Only for Americans" ? This is typical american patriotism bullshit. Do you even realise that there are places in this world that look like this, even worse, every day? While I applaud the people surviving this and feel sorry for the losses of others, it does not concern me one bit.
Get off your high horse, let the rest of us get on with our lives and shut up.
First WiFi digital camera? Then what is this supposed to be?
dennis
As I've said before, soap boxes are on aisle 5.
The only way to tell the difference between a hamster and a gerbil is that the hamster has more white meat.
PictureProject is a great little application. It works much like Apple's iPhoto, but seems to handle large quantities of files more easily. Serious photographers will want to use Photoshop as well, but I find PictureProject faster for browsing 5000 images than Adobe Bridge.
So stop bitching to people on slashdot, drive down there, and help out. What's your point here? To guilt us into feeling bad? To motivate us to help them? Why go through the trouble? Help them now and don't worry about others. If you're intentions are to recruit slashdotters to help you on your quest to save them, you're wasting your time due to distance reasons.
Maybe I'm sounding hypocritical, but put your money where your mouth is and go help the people.
What the heck? Are you totally insane?? Not only did you READ this article, you ALSO commented on it! How is that any better than what you just complained about??
tell me that.
all I want to know.
Am I the only person that is sick and tired of what Addot has become? That "editor" Zonk has been relentlessly plugging for company after corp, and after this latest non-story in the annals of $lashdot, I'm starting to wish there were more folks on Technocrat.
"MY APOCALYPTIC TENOR HAS NOT BEEN DISPELLED!" - T-Rex, qwantz.com
Does it work on Linux? Or does it require some slow, fugly piece of shit windows only program?
I was just recently wondering if there were wi-fi digital cameras available. I was shopping at Target when I saw one of those Kodak 'do-it-yourself' digital photocenters with half a dozen slots for almost every type of portable storage media. Mounted on the side was a design afterthought - a bubble of plastic that housed an infared sensor. I would never use the Kodak photocenter simply because bored checkstand onlookers would be able to view my my most private pictures while I crop and edit them. However, the wi-fi add-on seemed like a natural feature.
Then I had another thought: with the advent of protable digtal cams being used to feed a modern culture of voyeurs, it's just a matter of time before there are voyeurs with protable wi-fi cam sniffers, lingering nearby to leech onto an unsuspecting data transfer. I read a few months ago about how some guys had built a bluetooth sniper rifle; unnoticed, they would stand atop tall downtown buildings and digitally eavesdrop on nearby blackberries and other pdas.
It seems the more freedom we embrace, the more we surrender.
The $4999 Nikon D2X has wifi:
p roductNr=25215
t nG=Google+Search
http://www.nikonusa.com/template.php?cat=1&grp=2&
Ever hear of this thing called Google?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=nikon+wifi&b
OK so its FRIDAY night and here I am commenting about pr0n making accessories, instead of getting some.
sheesh!
I have to akxs, cause maybe I am missing something, but how is a journalist in the field, going to be able to upload to a remote server, when you have to first instal client software on whatever machine you are downloading to?
Also what initiates the downloads?
The camera or the desktop?
If its the camera I cannot wait to see the tiny interface for connecting.
first a list of access points, then a list of clients. oh but don't most access point use NAT?
I guess you first have to set up the access points to allow a particular port to open for that service to go trough?
and so you should first walk around the neighborhood and make sure that the persons know you might be doing this. (especially in Florida where you will go to jail for using someone else's bandwidth.
hmm this seems a little complicated, but I realize its the future.
I hope it uses Bonjour or rendezvous whatever that is called now.
hmmm, what about Linux and OSX support?
I think I will stick to the bluetooth ROB-1 cam that sony makes.
(http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000833035337/)
A little bluetooth camera that connects to sony cell phones which can then send the image to others, and moves by itself, would make much more sense to use for that journalist in Gaza getting the beat down from Israeli military goons, or the guy watching some random LA cops use some black guy as a punching bag?
Content + Container; Content = Container; Content â Container... which is the question?
It doesn't say anywhere whether you will be able to operate the camera remotely from the software provided...
1 /
Does anyone know if it supports this feature?
Their previous protocol WT-2 did...
"I agree. The Remote Camera Control function offers PC control over various settings and operations, including focus and exposure adjustment, through USB cable connection of a PC installed with "Nikon Capture 4 (version 4.2)" and camera. The WT-2, however, lets you use this function without the USB cable connection, making it useful for shooting birds in their natural habitats, for instance."
from: http://nikonimaging.com/global/technology/scene/1
Here's a New York Times video review of the camera.
Summary: It would be better if it could connect to the Internet.
You could take any pictures you wanted with this in China, like during a protest at Tiananmen square, and have a partner nearby with an innocuous-looking bag holding a laptop... Then when the commie secret police slimeballs smash your camera (ok, that is bad) you at least still have the great pictures you took of them doing whatever bad deeds they don't want the world to see.
Come on a wifi digital camera.. what a waste of good ideas. how about something that everyone would want. a laptop hard drive in a nice small pack that has a battery and wifi.
it sits there as a wifi share either set it to join any network it finds when turned on or make it default to adhoc mode.
that would rock. " Hey I need those files, just a second, I'll download them from my backpack."
there are gobs of really cool stuff that could be done with wifi or bluetooth, yet we get useless crap like wifi enabled digital cameras.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The federal government has no jurisdiction in LA. The federal government is there to assist the state. It's the state's responsibility, even during a natural disaster. If you want to talk about the roles of government, find out what they are first.
SearchIRC - Now with live chat directory!
WI-FI just seems to me to be pointless on a camera. It's not like I'm going to be out taking photos near hotspots all the time (for example, backpacking through Costa Rica) What I really want to see is a GPS-enabled camera that records not only time and date in the metadata, but also latitude and longitude. I always seem to have a hard time recalling where it was I took my photos once I have all of them on my hard drive. Imagine being able to integrate these photos with, say, Google Earth (a satellite flyover slideshow!). Or, imagine being able to search for photos using Spotlight in OS X Tiger by location. I can see real geek appeal to something like this, instead of adding a battery-sucking feature that would only be functional in a narrow slice of locations.
This just in: Bush Administration declares war on Mother Nature.
isn't that what nikon + orb (www.orb.com) gets you?
anyone know whether this camera shoots MPEG-1 video?
You'd be surprised what's not on the map in this country. - Mulder
I've purchased thousands of dollars of Nikon bodies and more thousands of dollars of Nikkor lenses in my day; all the way back to my first F in 1972. Now it's payback time:
I want 25+ million pixels in a 24mm x 36mm array that's good corner to corner and available in a back that mounts on my F3s.
Until then I don't buy shit.
In 1968 Mayor Daily tried to suppress a crowd protesting the war and what they perceived as the theft of the primary elections and Democratic presidential nomination by the party elite.
He did this by ordering his police to smash the newsies' cameras.
This had always worked before.
He also has his pet union bosses block the stringing of much of the TV cabling into the convention center, hotels, and surrounds that would have carried the pictures. That was expected to work, too.
But the newsies were trying out a new technology: The "minicam". This was enormous. A "miniatureized" TV camera about as big as your torso, shoulder mounted. Hooked to a backpack full of electronics and batteries, with a big antenna sticking out. About all a strong man could carry. But just barely enough to get the signal to the next stage: A semitruck full of electronics, located within a block, terminating in a microwave dish to pipe the signal to a nearby studio.
And this was Chicago. Where all three major networks had a studio there, along with the major facilities for their cross-country video landline.
What was brand new about it the "mini"cam: It was real-time. By the time the billyclub smashed the lens the image of the billyclub had come zooming at the faces of a country full of TV watchers.
Oops!
For the next three days the crowd chants "The Whole World Is Watching" as the process repeats. The country is treated to video of the National Guard and the 101st Airborne shoving crowds around with assault rifles, jeeps mounting machine guns and others mounting barbed-wire barriers, and enough teargas to fog the center of a city, plus enough repeats of police people bashing that instant replay is redundant.
And a once-well-liked Democratic party functionary's nomination is totally discredited. And the Republican wins the race.
Fast forward to near the end of the century. Video cameras that record on tape are now a consumer item. And a citizen tapes the interaction between the LA Police and Rodney King. Regardless of whether the cops were acting rightly or out of control, the scene makes for riots once it hits the news - and again when the cops are acquitted.
So is the reaction of the California governments to clean up the LA cops? Of course not! (Their gang task forces are left to run wild until their pattern of evidence-faking and perjury leads to legal challenges of their previous cases and the release nearly everybody they ever busted.) Instead they pass a law to BAN recording government functionaries (such as police) performing their functions. And the police use this to sieze any videotape made of their actions.
Videocams are in the same position that film cameras were BEFORE the Democratic Convention of '68.
Until now.
Cellphone cameras were a start. But this looks like a system that will put publication-quality radio-linked realtime news photography in the hands of the general population.
Granted it's just stills so far. But it looks to me like John Q Public just got his hands on the class of technological tool that only the network newsies have had for the last 35 years.
Just in time for the next step in the replacement of the the news establishment with the Internet-based open media. B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
If Pentax (or Nikon or any camera manufacturer) integrates a GPS receiver or, at the very least, allows one to connect a GPS receiver to the camera, then I'll be happy as a clam in sand.
At least with wifi, cameras can now send pics directly to computers or PDAs. Now if their protocols are open (like PictBridge), one can write opensource software that would stamp the camera's location onto EXIF.
Yes, that Ricoh. I think rather than built-in wireless it had a TCP/IP stack, an FTP client and a PC Card slot for whatever kind of compatible network card you wanted to put in: Ethernet, wireless, whatever.
And it was definitely a consumer camera. It had a tiny lens and was designed as a flattish bar similar to old 110-film Instamatics.
Hardly an issue really. Most software can do entirely without it anyways - and that is only the case with ONE single body - every other body is fine.
:) Not that Canon is perfect, but I want out of Nikon's ever increasing mediocrity.
If you want to pick issues about Nikon's stuff, there's lots of REAL ones to pick...
I, for one, didn't buy a Nikon DSLR body to replace my old Nikon SLRs. I went with a Fuji DSLR instead. The flash system is just a mess. Not that it doesn't work. But why change the flash gear like 3 times in a row? From *real* TTL to eTTL/iTTL oddball stuff. So you had to ditch your 500$ SB-28, replace it with a SB-28DX for another 500$, then ditch it, buy a SB-80DX instead for another 500$, and ditch it again, and buy a SB-800 instead for another 500$!?!
If you make a living out of it, sure, that may not seem like a big expense, but otherwise... Ouch! That's assuming you only need 1 flash, and also assuming you don't use other flash types like macro ring flashes. Otherwise you'd have to chance those as well. I didn't have yet another 500$ for a SB-29s macro ring flash to replace my perfectly good real TLL macro ring flash.
And then what about all the preflashes that trigger the studio strobes and can't be cancelled on many (most? all?) of their DSLRs? So the strobes give all they got during the preflash, and then are out of power for the real flash... Useless! Most of their bodies (D100/D70 etc) don't have PC sync cords either - gotta buy the expensive wireless triggers and rely on them to work properly... Yeah right. Some bodies only have mechanical screw-in type of "remotes" too, no infrared or cabled remotes.
New DX lenses? That's OK. As long as you don't mind paying as much for a non-full frame lens that's not particularly good. It's not an issue until the day they decide to change the frame size again... Because out of the current one, having a maximal theorical resolving power for 35mm lenses... We're approaching max resolution that can ever be attained - unless they go full frame again. In which case you can just throw away your DX lenses... Or for usually less money, you can buy BETTER 3rd party lenses that are full frame. Point in case: Nikon DX 12-24mm VS Sigma's and Tokina's. Both 3rd party lenses are cheaper, full frame, and have better pic quality. Full frame also means it'll work on any F-Mount camera, be it a Fuji, Kodak, Nikon, or some Nikon film SLR of any kind. Why would one spend MORE to get such inferior, short-sighted stuff like that? Amongst pros and prosumers, I've seen exactly 0% interest in their DX lenses.
Nikon has been listening to their north american (and european?) consumers less and less these days it seems. It just seems like they're putting out stuff that THEY want to - not what WE want.
The D70 might not be bad right now, but they tend to be slow at coming up with new / equivalent stuff to canons, like VR lenses, whose selection is still very limited and quite expensive... Note how you see canon stuff sold EVERYWHERE? Even at best buy! But nikon? Nah... Only Nikon authorized shops. Old mentalities...
Being a nikon system user is becoming less and less attractive everyday.
I'm pretty much locked in with their stuff (lots of $$$ invested in good lenses) - the mount at least. Keep it or sell it all at a huge loss... If it wasn't for a Fuji DSLR I would have bought a Kodak DSLR instead (uses Nikon lenses too; F-Mount stuff), the SLR/N is very nice but I'm not that rich... I'm a coder - not a CEO.
As for Nikon's stuff... I just may sell everything at a huge loss before I buy one of their DSLRs. I hate Nikon (the japanese company) a LOT more than I'll ever hate microsoft.
There's times like that I wish some sucker/looser would trade my Nikon gear for equivalent Canon gear
Oh, OK. Does this help? I thought we'd all heard of it.
I hate nt posts as much as the next guy... but still, I had to chuckle there. :-D
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
Great. Now I know what to get that cute Uni Student next door for her birthday. :D
RebateFX.com - Spread rebates for Forex traders
Kodak announced their Kodak Easysahre One back in January 2005. The model was planned for June 2005, but delayed to October. It is coming to the market at the same time as this Nikon model - which was announced a couple of days after the Kodak announcement.
One small step for digital photography, one giant leap for voyeurism!
I would expect some nerd to hack a 802.11 wireless card inside a $100 camera and article posted here? Come on slashdot.
Nikon's D1x and D1h cameras allowed for connection of a GPS. Possibly the Nikon D1 as well. IIRC, the Kodak DCS720 and 760 supported it too. Nikon's current flagship model, the D2x, supports this feature. It allows for embedding of GPS data in the image header.
Mike
Part II: Behind the Scenes at the CES Keynote
Is the protocol open? (My guess based on current information is: NO)
Can you send commands to the camera through WiFi? (No hint that it is, so probably NO).
Can the camera be run off a power supply? (Probably YES)
If you could do all those things, the camera would make a great web cam and Nikon could sell huge numbers of it. But probably it won't work again.
It is truly frustrating that there is so much great camera hardware out there and camera manufacturers screw up on the software, the protocols, and openness. I have yet to see even a working, fairly complete PTP implementation over USB.
There has always been a wifi add-on available for the upper D models.
Sorry, but you're WAY off. Ricoh's RDC-i700 (announced on September 10th, 2000 and shipping shortly thereafter) offered support for wireless LAN cards, and indeed was being demonstrated and sold by Ricoh with the ability to stream live video from the camera over the wireless LAN connection at Comdex the following year. That beats Nikon's D2H by almost three years. Ricoh also announced a second wireless-capable camera, the Caplio Pro G3, on May 29th 2003.
If you're willing to expand your definition of "wireless" to include Bluetooth, then Concord Camera (with the Eye-Q Go LCD and Eye-Q Go 1300, announced March 7th 2002) also beat Nikon by a year and a half.
If you expand the definition still further to include prototypes, Canon showed a prototype of their PowerShot S10 digital camera with an addon Bluetooth model in late March 2001.
Disney (and other theme parks) will love this. The photo snipers that want to take your picture in front of the castle could do away with running around with memory cards to get the photos to locations where people can see them and buy them. Many of these parks are aleady wired for WiFi. Just snap the photos and they are ready for purchase nearly instantly.
hi there friend, your response just happens to be the most poignantly stupid one i've received.
/. post not to me, since it's a useless front-page commercial spot for nikon, right?
it's funny you should say what you just did, considering the federal government has jurisdiction right now over half of LA's national guard resources-- which are overseas
secondly-- i already know what the role of federal government is, evidently you don't. you'd
here's some food for thought from March 2002:
"The assistant secretary of the Army, Mississippi's former U.S. Rep. Mike Parker, was forced out Wednesday after he criticized the Bush administration's proposed spending cuts on Army Corps of Engineers' water projects, members of Congress said.
"Apparently he was asked to resign," said U.S. Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a member of the House Appropriations Committee's energy and water development subcommittee that oversees the corps' budget.
Parker earned the ire of administration officials when he questioned Bush's planned budget cuts for the corps, including two controversial Mississippi projects.
that's from missi's Clarion-Ledger
what do you think we pay taxes to the army corps of engineers for? in your world apparently, just so you/they can say "too bad, it's not the government's job to do something about it, losers."
by the same reasoning i suppose you don't think congress should not make any appropriations to assist the devestated areas. and speaking of other problems, like terrorism, why have an FBI or CIA at all? 9/11 was new york's problem
and there's more: "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it expects to finish closing off New Orleans' 17th Street Canal from Lake Pontchartrain on Friday. Most of the water now covering the city came from breaches in that canal and two others." (from npr)
makes you wonder what the federal government is doing there, eh, when it's just a problem that the state should have to deal with on its own. and you might like to know that your esteemed leader bush has already declared that the disaster will require the attention of the country for a long time-- i guess you'd really clash with him about the role of the executive, the federal government, and so forth.
as for the rest of you reactionary cowards,
" What, you think this is called "Slashdot: Only for Americans" ? This is typical american patriotism bullshit. Do you even realise that there are places in this world that look like this, even worse, every day? While I applaud the people surviving this and feel sorry for the losses of others, it does not concern me one bit.
Get off your high horse, let the rest of us get on with our lives and shut up."
yeah i do realizes there are places in the world that look like that, all the time. i'm there, most of the time. it's nice to know that while you "feel sorry", none of it concerns you one bit. i can't possibly fathom how mentioning the destruction of one of the most internationally-known cities in america is "american patriotism bullshit." when the tsunami happened did you flame anyone who talked about it in public as bullshit patriots for [whatever nation they might have mentioned, if any] ?
you obviously have major problems if what i posed somehow hindered you from Getting On With Your Life. you must feel really guilty and helpless, or somehow utterly inconvenienced, otherwise i don't know how you react so extremely. so i'm sorry for you.
oh, and dear soapbox guy: maybe you were referring to the
last things last. "stop bitching, nobody here can help. it's distance. go help yourself." you very clearly missed the entire thrust of what i said (you can disagree all you want, but unfortunately you're missing the point.) i wasn't trying to enlist help. i was pointing out a few absurdities that strangely haven't seemed to dawn on the american conscience as a whole. yeah it even applies to you too, imagine that.
Is that what they'll call it when someone remotely takes over your camera?
Mod parent up. Here's an article about the Ricoh RDC-i700, dated 3/18/2002:
http://www.macworld.com/news/2002/03/18/ricoh/inde x.php
And a review from CNet, dated 6/28/2001:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Ricoh_RDC_i700/4505-6501_7 -6346147-2.html?tag=glance
I'm interested in this as a replacement for network cameras and USB webcams on my website Lundycam.
Network cameras such as the Axis 206 are well engineered and have easy-to-use APIs, but they seem expensive for hobbyist use - the Axis 206W with 1.2 megapixels costs 300 pounds in the UK.
It's not clear whether these Nikon models can be programmed to take pictures at say 1 minute intervals indefinitely, when connected to an AC supply. Also, I wonder whether the autofocus and zoom mechanism are designed for continuous operation. I'm tempted to buy one to find out.