As reported by The New York Times, Nikon announced the first two Wi-Fi cameras: the new Nikon P1, due in stores on Sept. 15. It’s an iPod-size, eight-megapixel camera dressed in brushed-metal black, with a list price of $550. A sister model, the P2, is a silver, 5.1-megapixel version that lists for $400.

The P1 is so small, you wouldn’t guess that it contains a Wi-Fi transmitter for wireless networking, also known as AirPort or 802.11; only a small plastic window on one side (which permits the signals to exit the metal case) gives away the secret. Of course, Wi-Fi is useful only when you’re within range of a wireless hot spot in, for example, a hotel lobby, coffee shop or airport lounge. A Wi-Fi camera doesn’t let you roam nearly as freely as those cellphone cameras do.

BUT adding Wi-Fi to a digital camera ought to offer some juicy possibilities anyway. You could shoot pictures without even having a memory card; the camera would shunt them wirelessly to your waiting laptop as you worked. You could post pictures to your own Web site or a photo gallery site like Flickr.com while they’re still hot off the sensor. Photojournalists could e-mail their prize-winners to their editors directly from the battlefield (assuming, of course, a wireless Starbucks is near the battlefield).

All this and more awaits the consumers who embrace the first fully functional wireless digital camera. Unfortunately, the Nikon P1 is not it.

Incredibly, the P1 can’t connect to the Internet at all, even when its Wi-Fi signal-strength indicator has more bars than a federal prison. You can’t e-mail your photos or post them to a Web site. You can’t send photos from the camera to a cellphone or palmtop, or even to another P1.

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