wi-fi cameras

While Samsung's been updating and expanding its interchangeable lens camera lineup, its enthusiast compact, the TL500, or EX1 depending where you live, hasn't been updated in more than two years. That changes today.

The EX2F looks for the most part the same as its predecessor, measuring 4.4x2.4x1.1 inches and retains a fast ultrawide-angle lens and a swivel 3-inch AMOLED display. However, the lens gets even faster now at f1.4 instead of f1.8. Plus, the 3.3x 24-79mm zoom lens only goes down to f2.7 with it zoomed in.… Read more

A few years ago, digital cameras with built-in Wi-Fi didn't make that much sense. It was basically no better than using a USB cable, and a really slow one at that.

Now, though, the time is right. With more people packing smartphones and mobile hot spots, a camera with Wi-Fi will give you the control, flexibility, and quality of a dedicated camera with the capability to back up to cloud services, computer, or mobile device while you shoot, or share shots online without offloading to a computer first.

It's a golden opportunity to combat some of the drop-off caused by smartphones and households that already have one or more cameras. And most camera manufacturers do have at least one Wi-Fi camera in their lineups this year or increased support for Eye-Fi wireless SD cards.

However, it seems like they still don't understand how to sell Wi-Fi to consumers and make it a compelling reason to buy a camera.

Here's a brief list of what I see is going wrong and what camera makers need to do.… Read more

Sony is a venerable name in the world of consumer electronics. This is, after all, the company that invented the CD, the Walkman, the Blu-ray Disc, and has made a deep impression on the tech world and mainstream culture.

That's why when Sony screws up--something a company is apt to do every now and again while in business more than half a century--it's notable. Sometimes it's a singular event, other times it's a product with high expectations that ends up being a dud.

The latest mistake, the hacking of PlayStation Network customers' personal data, is … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Samsung seems to be the only camera manufacturer really pushing forward with Wi-Fi in its cameras. It's launched a handful of wireless-enabled models over the past couple years, but they've been mysteriously hard to come by, so I haven't been able to review one. Hopefully that will change with the SH100.

The camera has built-in 802.11n wireless that can be used for connecting to your Wi-Fi network for automatic backups or viewing on DLNA-equipped devices; connect to other Samsung Wi-Fi cameras for sharing; connect to hot spots including those provided by Boingo (an account comes … Read more

Today on Buzz Out Loud, the deadly dashboard of patent pendencies, YouTube's new live-streaming test (which we hope will eventually include CNET!), and Halo: Reach launching at midnight. Plus, could Apple launch an iPad with camera in time for the holidays? Rafe's money is on the line. And a Stanford student gets the best tweet ever.

Samsung announced Wednesday the ST80, a 14-megapixel ultracompact digital camera with a 3x optical zoom, a 3-inch touch-screen LCD, and built-in Wi-Fi. The ST80 joins the company's other Wi-Fi-enabled camera, the CL80, on my list of "I'll believes it when I sees it" Wi-Fi-enabled cameras.

The camera comes equipped with an account for mobile hot-spot provider Boingo, for access to more than 120,000 Wi-Fi hot spots around the world. It can also connect to DLNA-supported electronics (Digital Living Network Alliance) for sharing photos and video wirelessly between devices.

We've yet to see a Wi-Fi-enabled … Read more

I really dig Eye-Fi memory cards, which wirelessly beam photos from your digital camera to your PC (and/or an online sharing service). But I always thought they were overpriced.

They still are, but at least you can score a deal on one: Costco has the Eye-Fi 4GB Anniversary Edition for $59.99 shipped. Nonmembers pay an extra $3, and nearly everyone pays sales tax.

In case you're not familiar with it, the Eye-Fi is a standard-size SDHC memory card (meaning it's compatible with most cameras) that happens to have built-in Wi-Fi.

When it's in range of … Read more

LAS VEGAS--It was fitting that in a city created as an elaborate fantasy world that a knight would get up on stage and tell us how to save the princess.

In this case, the knight is Sir Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony (and Knight Bachelor, a title awarded by the queen of England), and the princess is the consumer electronics industry. And according to Stringer, one of the keys to slaying the monster of the recession is the convergence of networked entertainment and technology.

In his keynote address on the opening day of CES here, besides pushing various Sony products … Read more

Just got some interesting news from the makers of Eye-Fi, the Wi-Fi-enabled SD card that wirelessly beams photos from your camera to your PC (and/or an online service like Facebook or Snapfish): There's a new 4GB Anniversary Edition of the card, and you can get one for just $99. The catch? You'll have to walk into your local Costco.

Yeah, I know, that kinda bites. And $99 is still about $90 more than the price of a regular 4GB SD card. On the other hand, it's $30 less than the Web price ($129.99 at Eye-Fi'… Read more