Nikon COOLPIX AW100 16 MP CMOS Waterproof Digital Camera with GPS and Full HD 1080p Video (Blue) (OLD MODEL)

I misplaced this camera recently for about a week and it seems like everyday is was exasperated to not be able to get the shot I could have gotten with it but couldn't get with either my DSLR, Nikon 700, or with my very good and handy compact Canon S95. I bought this camera mainly to use when I didn't dare take one of the other cameras out in so much water. It is even nice not to have to be concerned about the rain, or the wet updraft from a waterfall, let alone at the beach, the river, the ocean, kayaking, rock terrain, sand, dusty riding or hiking. Yes the lens stays behind it protective glass that is itself quite will protected by the frame protruding just adequately beyond it. The other main attraction was the dropability. I was impressed by the shock-resistant aspect. I brag that I can drop it about the distance of my height onto any surface. But I can't get myself to intentionally do that. Still. I feel confident of its durability. I am also glad to have the GPS onboard. When I was considering ordering it, I was concerned about whether the resolution would be satisfactory, so, I chose to buy a refurbished one. The warrantee sounded good enough to take a chance. If I had known how much I was going to be using it and enjoying it, I would have bought the brand new one instead. But, I am very pleased with this refurbished one. No problem! One of the reasons that I can hardly stand to not have it at hand at all times is because it is so easy to take a really close shot. I am a beekeeper and I have been trying to get close-ups of the bees with the other two cameras and haven't been able to do with them what I can do with this one. The resolution isn't as good as I would like to be able to get eventually, but it is much better than anything that I have gotten at the beehive previously and the images that I send to the newspaper look good in print. This is the third water camera that I have gotten, and by far the best so far. I am very glad to have this at hand. Oh, and by the way, almost every time I open and close the water-tight door to the battery and SD card, I realize how much I appreciate the technology of that door and its latch and remember that comment about one of the reviews that criticized the latch as overly complicated and difficult to use. I get a really satisfied feeling from closing this particular latch that seems to have the feel of closing a submarine hatch. And opening the latch with only one hand is a skill that is pleasing to be a master of and takes little effort in accomplishing. And yes, if you guessed, I relocated the missing camera in the pocket of my beekeeping jacket. Now to get some close-ups of the kittens that are just beginning to get a little tiny bit of their eyes open. Of course, I can't get quite as close to them as I get to the honeybees that I can be almost touching with the lens and fill the frame with the bee and get fairly good focus and detail. Good enough for most uses, at a price that you wouldn't expect to be getting gallery quality, anyway. Yes, I did get the orange face. Sometimes I am really glad when it is so easy to find. In the beginning, sometimes I couldn't find it because I didn't see any orange face anywhere. That is when I learned to always set it monitor down. That side is all black. I like the looks of the black better, but the orange is handy and it is good for me to set the monitor face down to protect it from anything damaging it from above. Oh, and I really like how well it rides with me when the strap is around my neck. Excellent that it wears like a necklace, secured at with each end of the strap at a side of the camera instead of the wrist strap kind of tether. It is so easy to wear and to just lift and shoot. Easiest of any compact camera that I have ever used. It is when I am wearing it, though, that I would prefer that it had a the dignity of a black face. But, such a good image buddy, I can't complain. If you get one, I hope that you enjoy it at least as much.

My new AW100 replaced a Kodak Easyshare Sport C123 and a Canon SD400. The SD400 has been a great compact camera for the past 6+ years, but was getting long in the tooth esp since I bought a Windows 7 PC and couldn't get a driver (which created all kinds of issues with deleting subdirectories on the memory card). The Kodak went back within a couple days of use because a) it didn't have an optical zoom and I found I really missed that, and b) the pictures were too 'contrasty' where the highlights were blown out and the shadows all clipped to black. I guess for $80 the Kodak delivered its price-performance, but I only take pictures once and I want them to be good. I also have a Canon SLR but I don't take that fly fishing, backpacking, winter camping, nor to the beach. I've only had the AW for about a week, but so far really enjoying it. The image quality is as good as any Canon point-shoot (my wife has a newer Canon SD). The menus are not quite as intuitive, and I had to spend a half day reading the 100 pg manual to really get a feel for how best to use this. Still, there are a lot of flexible options including control over ISO and shake, and it has some cool modes that the Canon's don't have such as shooting 8 or 10 consecutive pics and auto-saving the least blurry to the memory card. The 5x zoom is further augmented by a 5x digital zoom where the pixels are interpolated rather than cropping in. I haven't tried the digital zoom yet, but I think this will be superior if/when I need that extra close up. I was also looking closely at the Panasonic Lumix but I chose the AW for superior video. I really like the stereo sound it captures, and the slow-motion video shots have already been a lot of fun. It allows you to record at 1/2 to 1/8 speed, or 2x speed, and you can even shift during the video shoot from normal speed to high or slow speed, and back. The other thing I liked about the AW over the Lumix is the 5cm macro. Have seen some stills on Youtube that looked pretty cool, and plan to try this out more now that I have a camera that can do it. I probably won't take this scuba diving since it's only good to 33 feet, but that's about my range for snorkeling and I'm sure it'll come in handy next time I'm someplace I'd rather be. I'm also looking forward to shooting some underwater video of trout, and not having to wrap this in 3 ziplocks for a rainy day on the river (or just insurance against an unforeseen swimming opportunity). Video'ing a buddy fighting a fish, toggling to slow-motion during a reel-screaming run and jump -- yep I think this will be a fun toy. Attaching a recent vid from the dog park, shot at 1/4 speed.