Instagram Socialmatic Camera to Go from Concept to Physical Product

Do you remember the Instagram Socialmatic? It’s a concept camera that made the rounds on the Internet back in May — a camera that lets people snap photos, share them online, and print them out as squared-shared sticky-note-style instant photos. The camera will soon go from digital concept to physical reality: it’s being turned into an actual camera, which is a proposed release date of mid-2013.

Trademark infringement issues aside (Instagram is pretty vigilant about defending its trademarked name), the camera has pretty neat specs: 16GB of storage space, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a 4:3 touchscreen, 2 lenses, optical zoom, LED flash, and an internal printer that takes in special paper cartridges.

It’s interesting to see a potential camera that’s geared towards both online and physical sharing. While there are cameras out there that do these things, usually they’re either geared towards online connectivity (e.g. Nikon with its new S800c) or making physical prints (e.g. Polaroid’s Z340), but not both.

That’s what will make the Instagram Socialmatic stand out if it actually becomes a reality come next year.

(via ADR Studio via Highsnobiety)