HIH Studios

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Ricoh Drops Two New Wireless Cameras


If you’ve got an 8.13 megapixel camera, and you want to improve on it, what would you do? You’d make it shockproof. And waterproof. And dustproof. Then you’d have a ruggedized, “sport camera”, perfect for the outdoorsman.

But outdoorsmen need to pack light, so you wouldn’t want to bring any of those pesky cables with you. So you’d make sure to make this camera Bluetooth capable. This way, you could instantly send any or all photos to your paired device (phone, pda, laptop) without having to worry about USB or card transfers, which can be tricky when running from a bear. Or, if you’re really smart, you could add WiFi, with WEP and WPA/WPA2 security built in. That way the guy in the next cabin won’t be browsing the photos from last night’s in-tent rendezvous.

Fortunately, the good people at Ricoh have done this for you. And they’ve included 26MB built-in storage, SD compatibility, and a 2.5-inch LCD, all in two cameras: the Caplio 500SE model B, which has the Bluetooth at $990, and the model W, which, yes, has WiFi at $1,100. The cams weighs in at a little over a pound each, so that “packing light” was a metaphor, but at least you know you won’t ruin it without really, really trying.

And sorry, campers, it’s Japan-only for this camera for now.

Ricoh’s WiFi/Bluetooth Caplios
[dottocomu]

No comments: