Friday 20 September 2013

Nikon Coolpix AW110

Pros Sharp OLED display. Built-in Wi-Fi with remote viewfinder support. Integrated GPS. Waterproof to 59 feet. Action button. 5x zoom range.

Cons Not the best performance in low light. Narrow aperture compared with the competition. Image sharpness suffers at edges of frame. So-so high ISO image quality. Bottom Line The rugged Nikon Coolpix AW110 is a modest update to its predecessor, the AW100. It can go deeper under water and adds Wi-Fi, but still suffers at high ISO settings.

By Jim Fisher

The Nikon Coolpix AW110 ($349.95 direct) is the follow-up to the AW100, a tough compact that won our Editors' Choice award when we reviewed it back in late 2011. The 16-megapixel AW110 improves upon the earlier model in small ways, including an improved underwater depth rating and built-in Wi-Fi, but it's not a drastically different camera. Other tough cams have added wider-aperture lenses, macro LED lights, and other features that make the category a bit more competitive. Our Editors' Choice rugged compact is one of those, the Olympus Tough TG-2 iHS; it's only $30 more than the Nikon, and packs an f/2 lens that makes it a more versatile low-light shooter.

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Design and Features
The AW110 follows the traditional tough camera design scheme. The lens is an internal zoom design, located in the top corner of the body. The camera itself measures 2.6 by 4.4 by 1 inch and weighs 6.9 ounces. Its tough exterior can survive drops from a 6.6-foot height, can operate in temperatures as low as 14°F, and is rated for use in depths of water up to 59 feet. It's not as stylized as the Canon PowerShot  D20, a tough camera with rounded corners and a wavy two-tone color scheme. The Canon is a bit bigger at 2.8 by 4.4 by 1.1 inches, and heavier at 8 ounces. Our AW110 review unit was orange, but the camera is also available in black, blue, and camouflage color schemes.

The lens is a 5x design that covers a 28-140mm (35mm equivalent) focal range. The aperture starts at f/3.3 and narrows to f/4.8 when zoomed all the way in, but Nikon does include optical image stabilization to help steady shots in lower light. It's no match in terms of light gathering when compared with faster lenses like the 25-100mm f/2-4.9 lens found on the Pentax WG-3 GPS. The 28mm design is plenty wide when you're shooting on dry land, but underwater photographers understand that shooting through water narrows the field of view of a lens. What the AW110 is missing in wide-angle coverage it makes up for in its macro capability; it can focus on objects a centimeter away at the 28mm zoom setting; the Pentax requires the lens to be zoomed to its midpoint in order to focus that close.

The rear 3-inch OLED display is quite sharp at 610k dots, and it has an adjustable brightness setting so you can more easily use it in sunny conditions. It's an upgrade over the 460k-dot display found in the AW100 and the Olympus TG-830.

Nikon Coolpix AW110 : Rear

To the right of the display you'll find the majority of the camera's controls. There's a zoom rocker, a movie button, and controls to adjust the flash output, set the self-timer, adjust exposure compensation, and enable macro shooting. A Scene button lets you change the shooting mode; but you're limited to a few different automatic modes. Experienced photographers will likely be turned off by the lack of manual shooting controls. This is pretty standard for rugged cameras; of the models we've tested, the Olympus TG-2 is the only one with an aperture priority setting.

The Action button, which first appeared on the AW100, carries over to the AW110. It's located on the left side of the camera and lets you change shooting modes quickly. Giving it a tap brings up an overlay menu that allows you to change the current scene mode, start movie recording, play images, or view your location on the built-in world map. You can shake the camera to move from option to option, and a full press of the Action button confirms your choice. It's a unique feature that will appeal to rock climbers and hikers who aren't able to use two hands to change settings before taking a photo.

Both GPS and Wi-Fi are integrated here. The GPS module adds your location information to photos; it took a couple minutes to lock onto a signal, but updated pretty quickly after that in my tests. You can transfer photos from the AW110 to an iOS or Android device using the free Nikon Wireless Mobile Utility app. The camera acts as a hotspot which you can connect to using your device. Transferring images is easy, and you have the option of moving full-size, 1.5-megapixel, or 0.3-megapixel photos. Transferring a 1.5-megapixel image takes about 5 seconds. The app also lets you use your phone or tablet as a remote viewfinder where you can adjust the zoom settings and take photos, which are automatically transferred over.


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