Dombledore
Lurker
Samsung's "Galaxy Camera" and Nikon's "S800c" both run on Android. Is it just a gimmick or actually useful?
I think it's pretty cool!
I think it's pretty cool!
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Android on a Camera?
- Thread starter Dombledore
- Start date
I imagine it would be pretty useful TBH. If it's a decent enough camera and the price is relatively reasonable/drops, it might do quite well.
Initial reviews of the Samsung one seem quite favourable.
Initial reviews of the Samsung one seem quite favourable.
Android is a versatile general purpose, mobile and embedded Linux based OS. It's ideal for use in smart cameras. We'll probably see many more cameras using Android in the near future. Many cameras are already using a Linux based embedded OS.
chanchan05
The Doctor
The main reasoning behind here as I see it is that people want to be able to share. While smartphone's are designed to be able to do almost anything you need while on the go on a small device, like all "jack-of-all-trades", it really does not excel in doing some of the things it does. One of these things is taking pictures. Sure the Note 1 and the iPhone 4S take amazing pictures. But both of them don't really compare to actual point and shoot cameras. Sure the Nokia N8 could, once you tweak the settings to fit the shooting situation, and most certainly the Nokia 808 could, but do you really want to carry around those bulky phones with outdated OS? A cellphone can only be so thick as to carry actual camera optics. But you want to be able to share good quality photos too. Enter the Android cameras. Cameras have been getting smarter of late, able to add scene situations, filters and the like. Instead of Nikon and Samsung spending money to develop their own camera systems, and then having to integrate them to PC's, why just not pick up Android and use it? All you have to do is build a camera app, and the Android ecosystem takes care of the rest. Filters, PC and social media sharing, you name it.
zuben el genub
Extreme Android User
There's also Eyefi. You can get a wifi card to transfer pictures to another device. My Canon SX30 does support it, and it would be nice not to have to hunt for a cable when I want to download just a couple of pics.
No one has said how this works. Do the cameras have a setting like "save for web" so you aren't sending a 3+MP pic at one clip? The SX30 is a 12MP camera and the images come out as 18X20 (or close to) at 72DPI. I can imagine someone complaining about bandwidth hogs and charges eventually. If some keep abusing free wifi as their "right" - we all might lose it.
No one has said how this works. Do the cameras have a setting like "save for web" so you aren't sending a 3+MP pic at one clip? The SX30 is a 12MP camera and the images come out as 18X20 (or close to) at 72DPI. I can imagine someone complaining about bandwidth hogs and charges eventually. If some keep abusing free wifi as their "right" - we all might lose it.
It will most likely be done in exactly the same way that smart-phones do photo sharing now. A smart-camera should know that it cant upload 12megapixel uncompressed RAW images to Instagram or whatever. Probably will be done with apps and profiles.
BTW free WiFi is never a right anyway. Usually it's a complimentary service offered to paying customers, e.g. in a restaurant, coffee shop, bar or hotel. AFAIK EyeFi devices can't normally be used with these anyway, because there's no way to browse the landing or login pages, unless the smart-camera has a browser.
chanchan05
The Doctor
AFAIK it's done at exactly how Android does it right now. Facebook and Instagram does not upload the full 5mp photos I get on my phone. It would work the same way it does now. The only difference being the raws you have on your storage are real nice pictures. instead of crappy phone camera pics.
zuben el genub
Extreme Android User
That's good. I've seen so many damn photos uploaded at 10 - 12MP because users are too lazy or ignorant to resize them. Check Imgur for sizes sometimes.
We have requests for help and gripes here due to carrier limitations on MMS sizes. So I'm wondering if programs will resize enough.
I just mentioned Eyefi as a way to get photos off your camera and onto computer rather than hunt for a usb cable. Not to send them. That's more my problem than sharing. I need to get them to the computer with Photoshop.
You know free wifi isn't a right, and I know free wifi isn't a right, but the "MY DATA" crowd probably doesn't.
We have requests for help and gripes here due to carrier limitations on MMS sizes. So I'm wondering if programs will resize enough.
I just mentioned Eyefi as a way to get photos off your camera and onto computer rather than hunt for a usb cable. Not to send them. That's more my problem than sharing. I need to get them to the computer with Photoshop.
You know free wifi isn't a right, and I know free wifi isn't a right, but the "MY DATA" crowd probably doesn't.
Probably all depends on the service, device or the app, if it does the resizing and cropping automatically. I post pictures to my QQ Zone and WeiXin, these are all pictures originally taken at full 5megapixel resolution. Because these services have image size restrictions, so the apps always scales them down to size before uploading.
Imgur allows full sized pics to be uploaded, and so does Flickr, so it's down to whether the user chooses to scale/crop or not. If Instagram does have an image size limitation, Instagram apps will have to scale otherwise they wont work. I would guess that smart-cameras wont be sending MMSs, because AFAIK they're not phones, unless they have 3G/4G capabilities.
Bluetooth. That's how I normally transfer pics from my phone to my laptop. Because I may not always have a USB cable to hand either, and WiFi is only available at home and the free WiFi at a nearby fried chicken restaurant.
They probably won't be interested in real cameras anyway. Many people just seem use phone cameras these days, and that's it. I don't even have a real camera now, not even a point 'n' shoot. Smart cameras might not be able to use free WiFi anyway, not unless they have a browser to navigate the landing and login pages.