Bluetooth in cameras: Samsung ST1000

The ST1000 has been awarded the first ever award given by website Photo-Facts.  Rod Lawton is the editor/owner of this site and he has decided to award companies for the technology within the products rather than doing in-depth tests on cameras.  He is trying to differentiate the site from other photo sites.

Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology that’s already popular for swapping files between mobile phones, for example, for cable-free headsets and some computer peripherals, and now appears in a digital camera – the Samsung ST1000.

Bluetooth uses radio waves, so there doesn’t have to be a direct line of sight between the two devices. It isn’t compatible with or a replacement for the wi-fi networks used by computers and for Internet access, but it’s still surprising that camera makers have so far ignored it as a means for simple, cable-free transfer between nearby devices.

But Samsung is the exception, incorporating Bluetooth into its ST1000 compact camera (along with wi-fi and GPS). What could be more natural than swapping photos with your friends? You can do it with phones, so why not cameras?

Wireless communications are a bit of an unknown for most of us, especially those who’ve struggled with complicated network detection and authentication processes in the past. But Bluetooth communication protocols are well and truly sorted now, as demonstrated by the mobile phone market.

So could it be that easy with cameras? And could you expect a camera to communicate with a phone? Sure enough, during a quick test at the camera’s launch event an ST1000 ‘discovered’, connected with and sent a photo to our Nokia 5310 without a hitch.

Technology doesn’t necessarily have to be cutting edge. The main thing is that (a) it’s useful, (b) it’s simple and (c) it works! The ST1000 gets an award for achieving all three.

 

For more information, please click: http://www.photo-facts.com/WP/archives/4493