Polaroid joins digital camera arena

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Polaroid says it's long since moved past being a film and film camera manufacturer and has moved into the digital era.

The company introduced evidence of that at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas when it showed its latest camera, the SC1630 Smart Camera digital point-and-shoot model with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.

The connectivity continues a tradition for Polaroid, the company's president, Scott Hardy, said.

"Polaroid's heritage is in sharing," Hardy told Cnet.com. "We were the original photography brand that had a sharing platform. You could take a picture and then instantly share it with someone."

But instead of hand-to-hand sharing, the SC1630 can use its connectivity to instantly upload pictures to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other social networks, the company says.

While people have begun using their smartphones for casual photography and instant online uploads, Hardy says the SC1630's specification put it on a level above phone photography.

The SC1630 is a 16-megapixel camera with a 3x optical zoom, a 3.2-inch touchscreen and access to the full Android app market.

The camera's release date and price tag haven't been set yet, Cnet.com reported.