Nikon COOLPIX AW100 16 MP CMOS Waterproof Digital Camera with GPS and Full HD 1080p Video (Orange)
- Water-proof, Shock-proof, Freeze-proof: ruggedly built for reliable and comfortable outdoor operation. Water-proof to a depth of 33 feet.
- 16 effective megapixel CMOS sensor ideal for low light shooting and fast operation
- Full HD (1080p) movie with stereo sound and movie-record button that enables one-touch recording (HDMI mini connector equipped)
- GPS and e-Compass functions
- Points of Interest (locations, landmarks, etc.) and location information (latitude and longitude) can be added to your photos
- Shockproof if dropped from 5 ft, operating temperature down to 14 degrees F
Let yourself go and rejuvenate your passion for photography with the Nikon AW100 26293 COOLPIX Digital Camera. Boasting innovative features like Full HD for crystal clear movies, Hi-speed Linear focus for dramatically clearer images and Backlight Mode to catch even the smallest details in high contrast shots, you’ll find yourself falling in love again. A 5x optical zoom NIKKOR ED glass lens brings distant subjects super close for great outdoors, sports and travel photos. In addition to Full HD 1080/30p movie recording capabilities, this high zoom Nikon AW100 26293 COOLPIX Digital Camera also features Panorama mode to capture high resolution panoramic shots. Get the Nikon AW100 26293 COOLPIX Digital Camera today.
What’s In The Box:
EH-62F AC Adapter
EN-EL 12 Rechargeable Battery
UC-E6 USB Cable
EG-CP16 Audio Video Cable
MH-65 Battery Charger
UR-E23 Filter Attachment
AN-CP23 Strap
COOLPIX All Weather Sport Case
List Price: $ 379.00
Price: $ 379.00
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A decent camera, with a few caveats,
First, a few things to know before you buy, since Nikon doesn’t tell you these things until you get your owner’s manual:
Regardless of the size of memory card, single videos are limited to 4 GB of space (The manual says about 35 mins at the highest quality setting; the camera itself usually says 28 minutes. I haven’t come close yet to maxing that out, so I don’t know which is more accurate).
The user manual indicates that the waterproof packing in the camera may deteriorate after a year, so it is recommended that you have it serviced yearly to replace the waterproofing (at your expense).
The camera strap is supposed to be removed for underwater use. So be prepared to hold on tight, or buy your own waterproof strap!
After using this camera on an all-day excursion to Disneyland, I feel like I can review everything but the underwater performance.
Battery life: Good but not great. At Disneyland, I started the day with a fully-charged battery and by that night it was depleted to the point where the camera shut down. I did have the GPS and compass turned on most of the time the camera was on, and did lots of chimping and deleting of photos. I left the power-off setting at the default of 5 minutes. All in all I shot 65 photos and eight videos, the longest of which was 2 minutes and 48 seconds. You might want to buy a second battery for multi-day trips or if you plan to shoot all day with GPS enabled. UPDATE: Battery life with GPS off seems quite good. It may also be that the battery needed a few charge cycles to break in. At any rate, you can easily shoot all day with GPS off.
Still image quality: Decent to good, but not great. It’s sharp enough in the center, but if you’re the kind of person who views your digital photos at 100% looking for flaws, you won’t have to look too hard. It is a point-and-shoot, after all. It performed better than I expected in low light, but I wasn’t expecting a lot. I should note that it’s been about five years since I last used a point-and-shoot, and my reference point for image quality is a Nikon D700 SLR. I would say the image quality is about the same or a little better than the Canon Powershot A540 that was my last point-and-shoot.
Video quality: Good. I shot on the top quality setting, and the video looks smooth and sharp on my 47″ HDTV.
Performance: Vibration reduction and autofocus work very well and there’s virtually no perceptible shutter lag. I am very impressed by the Subject Tracking AF area mode. It follows the subject much better than the 3D tracking on my D700.
Recording formats: JPG only for photos (no RAW); MOV for video (Quicktime).
Features: If you want a lot of control over your settings, this is not the camera for you. You can turn off the flash and autofocus assist, and you can adjust exposure compensation. But you can’t manually dial in your own shutter speed or aperture, and there is no bracketing, although the camera does have an HDR scene setting (an option on the Backlit setting). I tried the HDR setting and it does make a notable difference in dynamic range. You will need a tripod or somewhere stable to set the camera for best HDR results; handheld, you’ll get blurring. In Auto mode (which gives the most control over settings) you can select white balance, continuous shooting modes, ISO sensitivity, autofocus area and autofocus mode.
Additional observations: One omission that would be really nice to have is a histogram. Since you’re forced to shoot jpg, it would be nice to be able to assess the exposure with a histogram. Mine does tend to blow out a lot of highlights and I’ve taken to knocking down the exposure compensation to -.3 or -.7
Sample photos: Six uploaded above.
Bottom line: A decent point-and-shoot. Better video than still imagery. Buy an extra battery if you shoot a lot.
If you have any questions I didn’t answer, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll respond.
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|Wonderful Camera for Outdoor Use,
I have had this camera a few days now and have been very impressed with the tests I’ve put it through thus far. This camera does everything Nikon says it will and does them all wonderfully.
Overall Build
This is a small camera in your hands which is a good and bad thing. It’s great because it means it’s easy to slip in your pants or shirt pocket and always keep with you. It weighs little enough that you hardly notice it’s there. I see where some people could see this as an issue because the buttons on it are very small in order to have the back LCD as large as possible. It does not feel cheap even though it’s made out of plastic and although I don’t plan on doing a drop test, I am confident it would survive a drop from chest high.
Picture Quality
With an 8GB SD card I don’t see a reason to shoot at any other setting than the highest resolution, so all my playing around with it was done at this setting. The JPEGs that come out look great. The images are sharp, have good color and the auto whitebalance has done an amazing job. The main thing I was worried about was having to do difficult WB corrections after the fact if it wasn’t right on with the WB, but so far it has been spot on in full sun shots, shady shots, indoor with incandescent and indoor with fluorescent lights. I honestly think the 16MP is a little overkill, but will keep shooting at full resolution as I don’t know when I’ll need those extra pixels. Lastly, low light shooting has definitely exceeded my expectations. I thought with a sensor as small as this one there would be lots of noise in the final result but even at the higher ISO levels the pictures are very clear and useable.
Video
I don’t really plan on using this for video too much but have tested it out nonetheless. It is very smooth while shooting at 1080p and looks great when run to my TV to view it. The microphones pick up the noises very well and even have a setting that reduces wind noise (I tested by blowing on the microphone while recording). To shoot video you don’t have to change modes or anything – you just press the red circle button on the back and you’re off.
Button Placement/Menu
Everything seems to get in the right place as far as buttons go. Most can be reached with either your right thumb or right index finger while you’re holding it up to shoot without adjusting, although if you are a lefty you will need to get used to holding it in your right hand. I also shoot a Nikon d5100 and had no trouble figuring out what everything did without looking at the instruction manual, so if you’ve used a Nikon in the past few years this should be a breeze. The menu is fairly uncomplicated and not overloaded with useless features. It is quick to get to the setting I want without too many annoying clicks. This is important to me as I had missing shots while I fumble with the buttons.
Vibration Reduction
I tested this out by holding the camera at arms length with one hand while shooting some test shots. Even from the LCD I could tell the image was doing a lot less shaking than my hand was, and was very impressed by the pictures when they came out. This will definitely come in handy on the boat.
Auto-Focus
Having not used a point and shoot in a few year, I was very pleased with how far the autofocus has come. It quickly locks on to an object, highlights the object and will keep it in focus even if you start swinging the camera around. Going from objects ~1 foot away to 30 feet away has been focused quickly and accurately. No complaints here.
Water-Proofness
The main reason I got this camera is so I could take it out with me when I go fishing. This means the first chance I got, I took this camera in a pool to start testing it out. It worked as expected, shooting at the 10 foot deep end of the pool with no problem. The color correction for shooting underwater was also quite effective. After taking some test shots, I put the camera in my pocket for the rest of the time in the pool just to keep it submerged for as long as possible. After a quick towel off out of the pool, it looked good as new. The battery/SD card door has a foolproof way of shutting and remaining watertight so unless I puncture something I’m not worried about water getting in there.
GPS
I have loved the performance of the GPS even when indoors. This is something that will be very useful when I either go fishing or go out in the woods and want to take a picture of something that is in a location I want to come back to. The GPS data is written to the metadata so I can punch it in googlemaps after I get home to see where things were. It also has an electronic compass which is handy for a few reasons and has worked great so far.
Flash
It works and it lights things up. I’ve sort of grown to love to hate flashes for snapshot while using my dSLR…
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