Nikon Cameras Cut the Cord

Nikon has developed a couple of new digital still cameras with built-in wireless LAN adapters, the company said this week.

At a basic level the Wi-Fi connection can be used in place of a USB cable to transfer images to a personal computer for storage or to a Wi-Fi printer for printing. It's also possible to set the camera to automatically transfer each picture to the PC immediately after it's taken. In this case, the image is also stored in the camera's memory so the camera's temporary buffer memory can be cleared and shooting can continue while images are being transferred.

Communication can take place two ways: in ad hoc mode a direct connection is established between the camera and a host device such as a personal computer and in infrastructure mode the connection runs through a wireless LAN base station to a device connected to the network.

Two Models Available

The Coolpix P1 and P2 cameras, which will be available from later this month, are largely identical. The only significant difference between the two cameras is the resolution at which they take pictures. The P1 is an 8-megapixel camera while the P2 is a 5-megapixel model. In practice, this means full-resolution images from the P1 are 3264 pixels by 2448 pixels and those from the P2 are 2592 pixels by 1944 pixels.

It takes about eight seconds to transfer a full-resolution image from the P1 and about four seconds to do the same with the P2, the Tokyo-based camera maker says.

Other features of the cameras include a 3.5X optical zoom and a 2.5-inch LCD monitor. The on-screen menu can be switched between English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Russian. Battery life is 180 shots for the P1 and 190 shots for the P2.

Both will be available in the U.S. later this month. The P1 will cost $550 and the P2 will cost $400.

The two Wi-Fi-equipped cameras are the first such cameras on the market with such a function, according to Nikon, but the idea isn't new. In 2002, Sanyo Electric showed a prototype digital camera with built-in Wi-Fi at the Ceatec show in Japan but it never came to market. Nikon itself has come close with Wi-Fi adapter units for its professional-class D2H and D2X cameras and Eastman Kodak offers an optional Wi-Fi card for its EasyShare One camera.