Aw120

Has anyone had any experience with this camera yet? I am looking for a small waterproof camera. Something for the water parks, in the boat, shallow dives where I don't want anything to bulky, etc. I have a Canon S90 with a case, and strobe already. Just looking for something that will fit in my pocket.

Thanks

I don't have experience with this particular camera, but i do with the AW series from Nikon. I have the Nikon AW110. Works great IMHO

Cool, thanks. I didn't realize that the camera only came out in March when I posted this. I imagine that not to many people have use it yet.

I really liked the AW100. I did have a few flooding issues with it, and I was carful, but still may have been my fault. Letting it dry out for a day or two fixed it every time, which I was impressed with. I ended up trading mine in and upgrading to an Olympus e-PL5 (not really a comparison, but I wanted it). I was able to do that because I purchased the 3 year any reason AD guarantee from Best Buy. The lens does have a tendency to fog up between dives if you do not keep it in cool fresh water, and if that happens good luck shooting anything the rest of the day. I'd figure out that if I traveled with mine in a thin Rubbermaid bucket with a lid, I could use that to keep it in fresh water between dives.

I too am considering the AW120 as a backup point and shoot, since it has WIFI. Also, They do take decent pictures and have some pretty fun software for effects and 180-360 panorama shots. If you pick one up, I'd highly recommend getting some underwater colored filters for it. They help get rid of the green and blues that take over at around 10 ft+ deep.

Note: The two times it flooded was in salt water. Yet, it still worked after drying out. Had it and used it regularly for at least a year after the first flood, and then maybe a month or so after the second.

The unit is very solid and can handle a lot of shock. It really does withstand the shocks and the depths it is rated for. I bet if you put it in a clear ziplock or vacuum sealed bag, you could take it much deeper than it is rated.

I am not sure about the AW120, but I did wish the battery would last a little longer. If you are just taking pictures and very short videos, you will be fine, but it seems like it was only good for about 30 minutes of video. Turning GPS off may extend that, but it was not by much.

The AW120 has some cool compass, orientation, and gauge features too. It, might be fun to use those on a <18 meter deep dive.

---------- Post added May 29th, 2014 at 01:16 PM ----------

As a quick follow-up: This had me thinking about my old AW100 camera again. So, I just picked this AW120 up today as a pocket point and shoot to take with me where ever I go. Mabey that is an indication of how much I liked owning the AW100.

I have my phone to take pictures, which works ok, but is limited. With this, I can take pictures and connect to it wirelessly with my android or my wife's iPhone and use it to quickly update our social networking sites. And the pictures and video are many times better quality than a phone will get. I feel it is the perfect companion for my Wife or Daughter to use when they Snorkel. Also, I won't let my son dive deeper than 18 m until he is older, so he can use this as his camera too.

It looks like Nimar just released a 80 meter deep housing for it. I may pick one of those up so that I can mount this on top of the cold shoe of my Olympus 4/3 SLR setup. I could then use it to shoot video logs of my dives, while I am taking pictures. I could also use it as a compass while being able to keep my LCD on my SLR ready to shoot in front of me. I doubt if the depth gauge will work in the housing, but maybe? Also, I suspect flooding issues will be harmless to the camera, since it is rated to 18 m WP.

Waterproof Camera dive housing Nimar NIAW120 for Nikon Coolpix AW120 camera