Nikon Coolpix AW100

Good as an everyday tough camera – If you specifically need a camera that is built tough or can do underwater photography then this camera is pretty good. For everything else just use your mobile phone as the photos will be of a similar quality. This camera struggles with high contract situations (eg person against bright background or concerts with bright lights and darker spots). The lens is in a strange place (top left corner) and it is easy to get a strap or finger in front of it. The GPS is a useful feature but drains the battery so it would be great if it were easier to turn on and off. The video function works quite well. It is also a good size (but your mobile is probably smaller). Generally, the photo quality is disappointing and I think Nikon could do better as their DSLR cameras are brilliant. For the $399 price tag I think it is possible to find a better camera in another brand.

I have given this camera to my son and it is good for a child because it is easy to use and built tough.

Great allrounder – As we have got a bigger Sony this was our second camera. Nice colors and some interesting shooting modes. Great for short walks cause you never know what you can bump into as it fits into a pocket. Good underwater photos. It survived some snorkeling what we cannot say about our previous Nikon S31. The price $240 when the newer AW110 arrived, GPS feature

Nice camera – Had it for a bit over a week now and i am happy with this camera, hardware wise. The menu navigation is not easy to use, you must read the instructions. I have had 5 digital camera's over the years and this is the only one I have had to read the manual. That gripe aside, it works very well in auto, and is easy to swap between the 2 auto mode's and the plethora of preset "scenery" modes

I love how it has a separate button for video, its not in one of the 'settings" menu's.

I have not had it wet yet, but the seal design looks better than the last "tough/waterproof" I had.

The battery not yet down to half from the first charge, with 5-10 minutes use each day. So that gives me confidence it will last a whole day of intensive use. Light, quick, good rear screen. separate video button Diabolical menu navigation

A fantastic all rounder – I bought this camera because my 4yr old son also likes to take pictures so I wanted it relatively tough and it is great. Love that it's waterproof so when you're travelling, if you want to go for a swim, you don't have to leave it for someone to steal on the beach. We took it to Thailand on our first trip and found two little issues. One: is that we still haven't figured out how to stop our action photos from being blurry so we used videos for action instead. A work in progress, I assume I'll find that if I just change a setting, they'll turn out well.

Two: because the unit is sealed, in high temperature and humidity, the lens can become foggy affecting the pictures. Nikon say to open the camera (when dry) to equalize the temperatures but when the temperature differences are because you're using it in the water, you can't open it. The only option is to lift the camera out of the water and let it defog. In reality, this didn't take too long and it wasn't too much of an issue. Probably as much as being careful when you are taking photos in and out of the water to make sure that there are no water droplets on the lens. I just kept dunking it till it came out without a big drop on it.

Apart from these issues, which were, for me, quite minor compared with the versatility of the camera itself, the camera was pretty awesome. The photos and videos came out really well for a person who can just points and shoot and some of our underwater photos are just spectacular.

Some people have issues with the battery life. I was a bit concerned because we usually have cameras that take easy to replace AAA's. We didn't have any issues. At the least, we had to charge it after a day of photos and videos (I must say that we had the GPS turned off so that the battery wasn't drained). It didn't inconvenience us at all. Even camping, we have the ability to charge it. Photos and videos were excellent. Easy to use. Lens can fog and water droplets left on the lens can affect the pictures.

Worked Perfectly – We needed a rugged camera for our holiday snaps - we got so much more! Overall: The camera was exceptionally easy to use, the battery lasted sufficiently long to allow a day's shooting and all the photographs were of sufficiently high quality to enable printing at A4 size with no problems Most of the time the camera was left in fully automatic mode, which clearly worked very well - It was only necessary to select a special scenery mode for a night campfire shot and to capture a sunset - Once the special mode was selected the shots were great

But what really set the camera apart is the GPS - which showed a map of exactly were we were! We also turned on the track log and captured exactly the route we travelled! This can be displayed in the Nikon provided PC software

The camera proved rugged enough going swimming, being frozen and even dropped in the dust but just kept on working Rugged, easy to use, GPS location