Look out camera phones: Nikon is coming to take some attention and put it back on real cameras, with the company officially unveiling its first digital compact camera with touchscreen and Android.
Featuring a 16 megapixel sensor with 10x optical zoom roughly equivalent to 25mm to 250mm, Nikon’s S800c isn’t intending to mess around, designed with versatility in mind. Nikon’s vibration reduction (VR) technology is thrown in here, as well as a 3.5 inch OLED touchscreen display on the back and 1080p video capture, but none of these aspects are the star of the show.
No, what Nikon wants you to feast your eyes on with the S800c is the operating system.
While most cameras features their own basic OS, the Nikon Coolpix S800c runs on Android 2.3, also known as Gingerbread.
Including a version of Android means customers will be able to use apps found on the Google Play application market with the camera, such as the retro picture effect app “Instagram” and the highly customisable camera app “Vignette”.
Social networking services can also be used here, with Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ all possibilities for where the Coolpix S800c can send pictures and videos to.
WiFi and GPS are more features of the S800c, making it possible to jump on wireless networks easily, though unlike a mobile phone, there’s no SIM or microSIM technology here, forcing you to find (or create your own) wireless network connection.
Nikon’s Android-based camera isn’t the first shooter we’ve seen to feature Google’s popular operating system, with Polaroid unveiling something similar earlier in the year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Unlike that model, however, the Nikon Coolpix S800c looks like it will see the light of day in Australia, with a release coming shortly.
The announcement of Nikon’s first Android camera wasn’t the only announcement made by the company today, with an ultra compact 10 megapixel S01 weighing only 96 grams, 16 megapixel with 12x optical zoom S6400, and an update to Nikon’s more manual friendly “P” series cameras with the P7700. Android isn’t available on these three cameras.
