Shooting modes are all of the fully-automatic point-and-shoot variety, with the AW100 offering a super-simplified Easy Auto mode, a regular Auto mode, 19 individual Scene modes, a Smart Portrait mode, and last but not least a small number of Special Effects options including Sepia, High-contrast Monochrome, High-key and Low-key. Minimum focus distance varies from 50cm at 28mm to 1m at 140mm, however there’s also the option to engage a Macro mode, which brings the minimum focus distance down to 1cm at 28mm and also produces very good results. This makes the AW100 slightly faster at its telephoto extreme than the Lumix FT4 and the Olympus TG-820, both of which offer a maximum aperture of f/5.9 at 140mm. The 5x zoom offers the 35mm focal range equivalent of 28-140mm, with an f/3.9 maximum aperture available at 28mm, rising incrementally to f/4.8 at 140mm. In warmer water this won’t be an issue at all though.
Once fogged it took a few minutes to de-fog during which time the camera was unable to focus. While out testing our review sample we did find that immersing the AW100 in very cold water (the north Atlantic ocean in late June!) after using it an air temperature of around 17degrees caused the lens to fog up. The 5x optical zoom uses a folded-lens design which essentially means that it is housed entirely within the camera body and protected from the elements by a window of toughened glass. To open it you’ll need to push the button in the middle of the dial and then rotate it. This is internally sealed against water penetration with the latch held in place via a dual-action lock. The battery/memory card compartment also houses the camera’s HDMI and USB connectivity ports and is located on the side of the camera. The outer shell is primarily from tough-impact plastic, with the front protected by a shiny metallic plate that’s available in a variety of colours – orange, black, blue and a rather fetching camouflage number. Picking it up for the first time, it certainly feels solid enough. However, these small advantages aside, the AW100 is certainly tough enough to cope with the kind of situations that would break most regular compacts – if you’re looking for a camera specifically to take white-water rafting or snowboarding, then the AW100 is most definitely up to the task. Granted, the Lumix FT4 and Olympus TG-820 are both shock-proofed to 2m rather than 1.5m, and in addition the TG-820 is also ‘crush-proof’ to a claimed 100kg while the FT4 is able to dive slightly deeper to 12m. Well, as far as the basic ruggedised elements go the AW100 is pretty much on a par with most of its main rivals.
So what’s the AW100 got to make it stand out from the crowd? While the AW100 looks pretty good on paper, the ruggedised or ‘tough’ compact market is especially competitive at the moment with all of the major manufactures offering their own models, most of which also come with solid feature sets and the same bullet-proof construction.
#NIKON W100 POWER ON TIME MOVIE#
Other notable highlights include a one-touch 180°/360° Panoramic mode a useful Macro mode that allows you to focus as close as 1cm away from your subject built-in Vibration Reduction anti-blur technology to minimise the effects of camera shake at slower shutter speeds 1080/30p Full HD movie recording with stereo sound a number of high-speed movie capture modes that play back in slow motion a range of digital filter effects that can be applied to your images post-capture (but not at the point of capture) a sensitivity range of ISO 125 to 3200 and, last but not least, a bright 3in/460k-dot LCD monitor.
#NIKON W100 POWER ON TIME SOFTWARE#
Not that you’d want to rely on the AW100 to try and navigate your way out of the wilderness Bear Grylls-style with it, although it can be used to geotag images and document your travels with via Nikon’s ViewNX2 software that is supplied in the box. In addition the camera also benefits from GPS functionality, a digital compass and a built-in world map. The AW100 is Nikon’s first stab at a ruggedised compact and, as such, is waterproofed to 10metres, shock-proofed from drops of up to 1.5metres and freeze-proofed down to 10☌. If you’re into outdoor pursuits or extreme sports and are looking for a camera that can cope with a few knocks, record your adventures and live to tell the tale, then the Nikon AW100 – or something very much like it – is exactly the kind of camera you should be looking at.
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