Nikon recently launched the first Android-based pocket camera. This is a smart move for Nikon to exist in camera world, especially phonecams. It can also change the world of mobile photography in general. If it is accepted by users, we will see a drastic increase in the quality of the image that is uploaded to Instagram, Flickr, Facebook and other services.
The Coolpix S800c looks no different from other pocket cameras until you rotate the view to the rear. The back is like a smartphone, complete with Android 2.3 as the driving 3.5-inch screen. Of course they can also access the application in Google Play Store.
This will eliminate the noticeable difference of smartphones and cameras. Photography world will be even more captured by the phone and it depends on the camera manufacturer to maintain it. If only Kodak had thought of this.
Even the best smartphone camera result less
Two of the most widely used camera on Flickr is not even a camera. They are iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.
As nice as the cameras are on even the best smartphones, though, they still don't compare to the specs on devices whose sole purpose is taking photos. Take the camera on the iPhone 4S, which is considered one of the best of its kind. Its 8-megapixel censor is good, but Nikon and Canon both double that resolution with their entry level consumer point-and-shoots. Like previous models, the Coolpix S800c shoots 16-megapixel images.
Smartphone cameras have other serious limitations. Their lenses have a fixed focal distance, so zooming in requires a faked digital zoom that rarely produces good results. By contrast, the S800c has a legit 10x optical zoom. To its credit, the iPhone 4S has a pretty wide aperture, which lets in a reasonable anount of light, it still doesn't do well in low light. Anybody who has tried to snap a picture in a dimly-lit bar without turning on the iPhone's (often gross-looking) flash knows that the device wasn't built for low-light photography. By contrast, cameras like the Nikon Coolpix and Canon PowerShow can boast ISO's as high as 3200, which allows for much clearer images taken in low light.
Because of the technical restrictions inherent in an iPhone or Android smartphone, there is a whole range of scenarios and places that just don't look good on Instagram, filters or not. Sure, some users copy images from their SLR or point-and-shoot and upload them Instagram, but that's a minority of the service's 80 million users. For most, it's too laborious. By baking a familiar mobile OS into its cameras, Nikon is streamlining the process of getting higher-quality images onto Instagram, Facebook and a host of other photo apps and social networks.
Canon and Apple will take action
More important, the Coolpix S800c might pressure other companies to update their own products accordingly. Canon would be foolish not to consider adapting its line of compact point-and-shoots, and both companies may consider baking a mobile operating system into higher-end SLR cameras. If smart cameras catch on, Apple and other phonemakers will be that much more inclined to enhance the iPhone's camera by more than just a few megapixels per year.
The result of all of this would be more photos more widely shared and of much higher quality. It's a noble goal, and an exiciting one - but first we'll have to see whether consumers are willing to buy and carry device that's dedicated to snapping photos.
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