Nikon Coolpix AW100: Adventure camera with map and compass

In recent years, virtually every single camera manufacturer has presented at least one waterproof and durable compact camera. The somewhat surprising exception has so far been Nikon, who have been big in underwater photography. Not least thanks to the legendary Nikonos series of system cameras for underwater use, where the first model was developed together with Jacques Cousteau and appeared as early as 1963.

The Nikon AW100 has a back-illuminated 16 megapixel CMOS sensor, five times zoom equivalent to 28-140 mm and built-in GPS. It has a screen of three inches and must withstand water depths down to 10 meters and drops of 1.5 meters. Temperatures down to minus ten degrees should not be a problem either.

Internal lens
Like most waterproof cameras, the AW100 is built with an internal angled lens whose zooming takes place inside the camera body. And as with most other cameras of the same type, this one produces somewhat mediocre image quality in the corners. But otherwise the sharpness is good through the zoom range and other image disturbances are kept under control. The AW100 exposes very nicely and the tonal range in the images is okay. If you increase the sensitivity, the image quality is good up to iso 800. At iso 1,600, some detailing starts to disappear, but the images are still clearly usable. ISO 3200 is mostly for emergencies.

Colorful. The AW100 is available in several different styles. In addition to this orange and camouflage color, there is also a blue and a black.

Video quality is acceptable, but with some jello effect when you move the camera. Zoom and focus are not heard so much, but the autofocus can be a little hesitant, which unfortunately disturbs a little. Nicely, the AW100 also has two low-res high-speed modes at 120fps and 540 x 480, or 240fps and 320×240. You also have a 60fps mode in 720×1280 and also 15fps in full HD .

Built-in GPS
The most obvious finesse of the AW100 is of course that the camera can withstand being dropped on the ground and being underwater. Wisely, Nikon has also equipped the camera with GPS, which feels like a natural function in a durable camera. Thanks to the GPS unit, you also have a built-in compass that shows where you point the camera. Smooth!

The camera also has built-in maps that can show how you moved even when the camera is turned off. Of course, it also shows where you took pictures and in which direction you took them. You have a lot of GPS settings to play with where you can set if you want to save logs and if so how long or if the camera should store location information.

One finesse we didn’t realize, however, is what Nikon calls motion control. The idea is that you press a large clear button on the left side of the camera and then you should be able to change some selected settings by waving the camera. We waved until we were sore but the only thing we managed to do was scroll up and down the row of settings. However, we never managed to choose anything. Here, Nikon has something to learn from Olympus and their tap control which may not be super smooth, but at least works.

Nikon took a long time to develop a water- and shock-resistant camera. Now that it does appear, they have done most things right. Some details such as the unusable motion control and the corner sharpness disturb. But on the whole, the AW100 is an affordable and good adventure camera with very nice GPS functions.

Nikon Coolpix AW100
Manufacturer: Nikon, www.nikon.se
Resolution: 16.0 megapixels.
Movie Feature: 1920 x 1080 at 30 frames per second.
Optics: 5x zoom, 28-140.
Proximity limit: 3 cm.
Screen: 3.3 inches (1.2 megapixels).
Memory: Sd.
Inputs/outputs: Usb, hdmi.
Battery capacity: 250 images (according to cipa standard).
Size: 11.1 x 6.5 x 2.3 centimeters.
Weight: 180 grams with battery and memory card.
Award: SEK 3,200.

Plus: Fairly light and flexible. Good GPS with compass. Lightly worked buttons at the back.
Minus: The corner sharpness. The motion control. Lightly scratched screen.
Grade: (8 out of 10)

Nikon AW100