Nikon Coolpix AW100

An asking price of £329.99 / $379.95 is a lot to ask for a 16 megapixel camera, but it is comparable with the AW100's main action rivals, so as ever with such a specialized camera, you really need to decide exactly how much mileage you'll get out of the extra weather-proof and GPS features.

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 16 megapixel High JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6.5Mb.

Speaking of image sizes, the AW100 uses a 1/2.3in backlit CMOS sensor that produces 16MP of effective resolution.

The Nikon AW100 has a Night Landscape mode that increases the ISO to produce sharper results, although at the expense of greater noise.

In favor of the Lumix, I liked the durable feel and overall fit and finish, the wide angle lens and I think people willing to play around with settings will have nice options.

The hood I bought is the EzFoto 40.5mm Wide Angle Metal Lens Hood Shade for Leica, Contax Zeiss, Voigtlander and other Lenses.

Aperture-wise it is not particularly fast, its brightness being f/3.9 at the wide end and f/4.8 at full telephoto.

But you can't manually dial in your own shutter speed or aperture, and there is no bracketing, although the camera does have an HDR scene setting (an option on the Backlit setting).

Replay on other devices has good sound but zoom and focus motors are easily picked up (stated in the manual).

The Coolpix AW100 also has a 16-megapixel back illuminated CMOS sensor, a 5x, 28-140mm equivalent zoom lens with lens-shift vibration reduction, 3-inch 460K-dot LCD monitor, full 1080p HD video with stereo sound, 3fps burst shooting, built-in GPS, a world map display and an electronic compass.

Panasonic makes exceptional compact cameras (well-designed, and they're heavily invested in compact cameras, including their).

Lightweight - For traveling, hiking, water sports, having a light camera is good.