Perhaps due to concerns about obesity and all those ailments that come along with it, plenty of people are taking up an active lifestyle, even when they go on vacation –they go swimming or surfing the waves, mountain trekking or climbing, and snow or sand boarding among others. They, of course, need an equally active camera. It is for this reason that Nikon finally joined the fray and issued its first waterproof camera —the Nikon Coolpix AW100 Waterproof Digital Camera.
The Coolpix AW100 is a compact camera measuring 4.4″ W x 2.6″ H x 0.9″ D, and weighing a shade over 6 oz. You can put it in your pockets and not even feel it’s there at all. This makes it convenient to travel with when you also have to carry your diving gear, tent and sleeping bag, or your skis.
Boasting of a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor you can be sure of clear and crisp photos. Its 5x zoom Nikkor glass lens with a focal length of 5.0 – 25.0 mm (28 – 140 mm in a 35 mm format) delivers both close ups and panoramic views. And with a shutter speed that ranges from 1/1500 – 1 second, splashes of water around you as you paddle through white water can be frozen, quite clearly, in mid-air, and so can the last golden rays of the sun as it sinks into the sea. The 3-inch TFT-LCD monitor that is coated with an anti-reflective material helps you compose your photos.
Apart from still photos, the Nikon Coolpix AW100 Waterproof Digital Camera can also shoot videos in full HD 1080p, complete with stereo sound.
The casing of the camera is designed to swim, climb mountains, and to ski with you. It can dive 33 feet into lakes or seas and still keep on taking photos. In case you drop it while having to grab a rope or grasp a rocky ledge, if it’s not more than five feet, just pick it up and keep on climbing. If you drop it on the snow while skiing, just go back and pick it up, shake the snow off, and continue downhill.