Camera & Photo

I've been looking at waterproof and tough camera for over a year now... and I eventually chose this one!

About me: I'm a techie, over 20 years in photography (started early), played with very many DSLR and compact cameras. I buy best-of-breed and I'm not very brand loyal (SLR I've used/owned include: Leica, Nikon, Pentax, Canon; Compact camera I've used/own: Canon, Panasonic, Olympus, and now Nikon).

I did a lot of research (including Canon, Pentax, Olympus) and eventually narrowed down to: Panasonic TS3 (aka FT3 in Europe), Nikon AW100, Sony TX10

** Sony TX10 - I love its image sensor, its rugged yet sleek ultra compactness. Unfortunately the lack of GPS killed it. For an all-weather sports camera, you expect to travel everywhere and often in areas you find difficult to mark on Google Maps.

** Panasonic TS3 vs Nikon AW100 - There are many forum that compare the specs of these two cameras so I won't bore you. Both have great specs for a... Read more

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... Read more

I tend to replace my point-n-shoot about every 3 years. I normally shoot a Nikon D90 but last year upgraded to a D7000.

[UPDATE Feb 2012] The original camera was replaced by Nikon since it failed on the 2nd use in water. This one worked through our Caribbean holiday for 4 full days before it started overheating and would not shut off. It stayed on until the battery drained. Leaving it "sit overnight" and then removing and recharging the battery got it working again, however I could feel the heat the longer it was in use.

The disappointing thing is this camera takes such great photos and now that we got it to work underwater, we know it takes fairly good underwater photos and video. But there's something wrong with either its design or the manufactured batch that we received. Had it too long to return to Amazon for a refund, so I'm probably going to send it a 2nd time back to Nikon. Note their repair service is great, but you have to be proactive and follow up or... Read more