#1 Nicholas

I read that the one weakness of Wi-Fi is the battery drain.

I haven't had time to confirm this.

I would like this feature on my next camera a couple of years from now.

1:46 pm - Saturday, December 3, 2005

#2 Rick B

Sure, why not - so long as you can turn it off to save power.

What I'd prefer to have though is GPS so that my EXIF info has location info in it.

2:56 pm - Saturday, December 3, 2005

#3 Pavel K.

I fully agree with "RickB"! A built-in GPS module with record to EXIF would be much more useful. I hoped that upcoming Siemens phone (SXG75) with 2MPix photo and integrated GPS module will be a perfect every day camera at least for web photos, but it looks there will be no GPS record in EXIF and also the integrated camera is not the best one :(

3:18 pm - Saturday, December 3, 2005

#4 Dave T

I've been shooting a lot of theater and dance performances and I would love the ability to have the images sent to the laptop by Wi-Fi. I could get the Wi-Fi module for my 20D, but it's much too expensive. If one could be had for about $100 or so, then I'd consider it, but until then I'll just wait for a lull in the action and run to the laptop to switch CF cards.

3:29 pm - Saturday, December 3, 2005

#5 Fredy Ross

Funny a couple of weeks ago I met a man who was taking a photo of a shop with the camera on his mobile phone and sending it to his girlfriend in London so I think there is a market but maybe not with tons of megapixels.
fredyr

4:29 pm - Saturday, December 3, 2005

#6 Dan

I think it is an excellent idea once it's implemented properly. On a pro-level I could imagine the benefits of setting up a mini-network and have my images transmit to a laptop eliminating the need to change flash cards.

Or even better than that a system where no set-up is needed in which the images are automatically transmitted to one or more storage unit(s) such as an Epson P-2000.

Of course, this will be completely worthless if proper security is not implemented. WEP is not security and can be easily broken. WPA is a requirement.

8:31 pm - Saturday, December 3, 2005

#7 nick in japan

Does this all mean that besides driving down my neighbor hood street and tapping into various "Hot Spots" with my Sony Laptop with it's Dell "True Mobile" I'll be getting neighbor's family pictures TOO?
Or is it set up on a line of sight infrared beam like wth the wireless transmitter on my old Sony camera?

6:58 am - Sunday, December 4, 2005

#8 nick in japan

It's coming! a camera with a couple Gig of internal memory with the ability to Wi Fi images on the fly if you want....Patience!

7:01 am - Sunday, December 4, 2005

#9 Jean

The WiFi Yes but not at this price.
The more important, I think, is the quality of resolution and the possibilities.

1:34 pm - Sunday, December 4, 2005

#10 Jean

The WiFi Yes but not at this price.
The more important, I think, is the quality of resolution and the possibilities.
Jean, http://www.artvideo.free.fr

1:35 pm - Sunday, December 4, 2005

#11 Scott McDonald

I was at a park in Florida recently (Silver Springs) where they had the wi-fi cameras to take pics of the customers and the customer could then go pick it up at the photo booth.

That seemed to be a pretty good use of the technology.

2:52 am - Monday, December 5, 2005

#12 phule

WiFi in digital point and shoots has (currently) a very limited application. The biggest consumers of this technology is (and should be) events planners and locations (parks, play areas, etc) that have dedicated wifi for their companies use.

The average consumer, however, gains nothing with this technology except more headaches, more expense, and more wasted time.

If WiFi becomes more wide-spread and the technology in the camera allows you to take advantage of free and/or open hot-spots then it would be more useful.

5:13 pm - Monday, December 5, 2005

#13 GARY POGODA

It's about time that cameras are finally upgrading to Hi-Fi. It's a long
overdue improvement. Even iPods offer Hi-Fi, so why shouldn't our
cameras do the same.

What that? It's "Wi"-Fi, not "Hi"-Fi. Well, that's a very different story.

... Never mind. :)

7:48 pm - Monday, December 5, 2005

#14 Fazal Majid

Software is the key. WiFi in camera would be a great feature if the camera could upload photos directly to Flickr, your blog, a FTP server or the like. Or even continuous always-on sync to automatically offload pictures whenever you are in range of a free hotspot.

Unfortunately, all the current WiFi cameras can do is upload to the manufacturer's proprietary software that needs to run on a PC nearby. It doesn't look like there is any drive towards standardization of such basic functionality. Without some kind of standards, the cameras' software will remain of limited functionality, generality and utility.

4:28 am - Tuesday, December 6, 2005

#15 Gabriel

Indeed, Fazal (comment #14) has an excellent point. I personally own two Kodak EasyShare cameras - but stopped using their software to work with my pictures in favor of Google's superior Picasa program ( http://www.picasa.com ). It imports my images, the interface is faster, and I can send images directly to my blog, email, and even to a printing company (If I send it to snapfish.com - I can pick it up at my local Walgreens).

If I can pick where I want it to go, the security is in place, battery life is good, then I would probably pay about half what they are charging. Wi-fi technology is not that expensive.

As far as usefulness is concerned - if your out in the wilderness taking photos, you can have your laptop tucked securely in your nice warm car, drawing power from it, while you're out taking photos until your battery runs out (or your hard drive fills up). Proprietary software or not, for the right consumer, it's priceless.

8:12 pm - Friday, December 9, 2005

#16 Paul

I don't think it will really take off worldwide. Maybe in the States and a few countries that have good wifi networks, but why pay extra for something you can already do via existing technology much chaeper. Oh how we have to have everything "instantly" available these days.
I keep bringing mine home selecting and editing them, then sending them through my internet conection. That's plenty convenient for me.
Just more new gadgets and gimicks.
Look through your cupboards. How many gadgets you thought would be indespensible are just sitting collecting dust?

10:37 am - Thursday, March 9, 2006

#17 John

At Disney World Orlando, the photo people at Disney use Nikons connected via USB to PDAs that were programmed to connect to their wifi network to transmit the photos back to the shops to sell. I talked to one of the managers, and they told me they had the software designed for them to do that.

When I was looking into it, the Canon WFT-E1A I believe that it uses wifi and (WEP only) and transmits to FTP. 1000$ though :-/

I do a lot of stage work, where it's low/no light, no flash, and it would be nice to transmit back to a laptop where someone could radio me to adjust settings if I was getting poor shots.

The need is out there. I don't think uploading to the internet is a wide need, but uploading to a wifi laptop would be a larger need.

10:28 pm - Sunday, October 29, 2006