Internet-enabled cameras are coming
Sony has released the Cyber-shot DSC-G3 as the first Internet-enabled camera. The integrated Wi-Fi capability enables you to do one-click uploads to sharing sites such as Facebook, Picasa, Flickr or YouTube. It also allows you to view any photos already online via the inbuilt Web browser.
The news and reviews on this camera seem to focus on the ease with which you can share your photos instantly online. This is definitely cool but it’s something we can already do with the ever improving cameras in our mobile phone devices. I believe the real potential is the ability to continuously have your photos backed up to a secure site, regardless of whether you share them or not. In particular those high quality images that requires an optical lens beyond what is available in mobile phones.
When travelling it’s always a worry that you may lose your pictures if your camera gets stolen or your memory cards misplace themselves. Some people are really concerned about this and will regularly burn back-up CDs at Internet cafés along the road and perhaps even put those CDs in the mail.
Wouldn’t it be much easier if every photo was automatically uploaded to a secure storage as soon as a photo was taken or even asynchronously on a regular basis. Your photos would always be safe and you could access them from anywhere as required.
Ideally we want connectivity beyond Wi-Fi and be able to utilise mobile data networks for our cameras. All this obviously depends on reliable and affordable mobile connectivity. Attractive mobile broadband plans are starting to emerge but it will still be a challenge while travelling with pricy international roaming rates and limited availability in many countries. But I sense that second and third World countries are catching up quickly skipping the legacy of fixed lines altogether.
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There’s now an SD memory card in the market with inbuilt Wi-Fi, Eye-Fi, which will connect any SD compatible camera. Cool stuff. Thanks to @mrhodes for bringing this to my attention.