OH NOEZZZZ!!!! The future is coming!!!
That’s what one report from Futuresource says at least. And according to them, Smart Cameras (i.e. WiFi enabled cameras) are the future with a predicted 4.7 million units by 2016.
The concept of the Smart Camera started years ago but was only really taken seriously by Samsung when they started to integrate the technology into their cameras for easier sharing of photos and videos to their smart televisions–which are also WiFi enabled. Sony later on started pushing it further and at Canon Expo in NYC a couple of years back, the company demonstrated a platform to wirelessly send content from their cameras to a device via an Alpha version of NFC technology. The main thing differentiating a smart phone and smart camera in terms of image taking is an optical zoom and usually larger sensors–if there is one.
The reason for the need to be connected comes from the growth of smartphone use combined with the increase of image quality that they can deliver. And for what it’s worth, there have been multiple reports that it has eaten into the point and shoot camera market. Indeed, both Olympus and Fujifilm are cutting down their stocks.
Indeed, there is lots of hype behind these cameras with many major manufacturers having the Smart feature built in. Some of the most popular are the Canon 6D, Panasonic GH3, Samsung NX300, Samsung Galaxy Cam, and the Sony NEX 6.
So how popular are these cameras? At the time of publishing this article, many of these cameras rank amongst Amazon’s most popular DSLRs and Mirrorless Camera lists. To be fair, WiFi isn’t the only reason why they’re so popular. They also have some damned good technology built into them.
Transferring of images can be done and has been enabled via WiFi for a while now. Eye-Fi has been making WiFi enabled cards for years and with the release of their new Mobi card, things just got even easier.
Via Photography Blog
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