You wouldn't think that the Nikon AW100 ($379.95 direct) is the company's first try at a rugged point-and-shoot camera. The 16-megapixel shooter manages to do just about everything right—capturing sharp images, surviving drops, geotagging your photos, shooting underwater, and grabbing 1080p30 video. And it does it all quickly, with faster performance than any other rugged model we've tested. All of this means that the AW100 ousts the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS3 ($399.95, 4 stars) as our Editors' Choice rugged camera.

Design and Features

Similar in design to other rugged compacts, the AW100 sports a sealed lens with an internal zoom mechanism, located on the top corner of the camera. It measures 2.6 by 4.4 by 0.9 inches and weighs 6.3 ounces, slightly larger than the 2.5-by-3.8-by-0.9-inch, 5.5-ounce Olympus Tough TG-310 ($199.99, 3.5 stars). The camera is available in three colors—orange, black, and blue. Its 5x optical zoom lens covers a 28-140mm (35mm equivalent) field of view and has a nice macro capability for capturing smaller objects.

A 3-inch, 460k-dot LCD dominates the rear of the camera. It's very bright and sharp, making it easy to frame and review images in a variety of lighting conditions, putting the 2.7-inch, 230k-dot display on the Lumix TS3 to shame. Control buttons are rubberized and sealed, but are quite responsive to the touch. The camera has all the standard control buttons—including a zoom rocker, dedicated movie button, self timer, flash control, and exposure compensation—and adds a special control button on the left side of the camera, called the Action button.

This button can be configured to bring up the GPS world map or to adjust shooting settings. Pressing it brings up a menu from which you can adjust the shooting mode, start recording a movie, play back photos, or view the world map. Lightly tapping the Action button scrolls through the options, while pressing it locks in a selection. This makes it possible to adjust settings on the fly, which can be helpful if you're into the outdoors or extreme sports and need to concentrate on things other than delving through camera menus.

The menu system is not as robust as on other Nikon point-and-shoots. There are fewer shooting options, the camera doesn't have Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, or Manual modes. Instead you are limited to Easy Auto, Auto, and various scene modes. You'll have limited control over camera settings in all of these modes, but will always be able to control flash output, exposure compensation, and the ISO setting. It's not always easy to find what you're looking for in the menu, however. The GPS setting is available only if you hit the menu button while viewing the camera's internal world map—which can be a bit confusing if you don't know to look for it there.

The camera is rated to survive drops of up to 5 feet and can be used underwater to depths of 33 feet. I was able to drop the camera over and over again without it missing a beat. I also let out my inner Jacques Costeau, submerged the camera in water, and grabbed some photos. Our previous Editors' Choice, the Panasonic Lumix TS3, is a little more rugged—it's rated to 40 feet underwater and can survive a 6.6-foot drop, but isn't as well rounded a performer as the AW100. The TS3 also includes an altimeter and barometer, and is rated for use in 14°F temperatures, which might make it a better option for mountaineers.

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Performance and Conclusions

The AW100 is the speediest rugged camera that we've tested. It can start up and grab a shot in 1.4 seconds, only requires 0.8 second of recycle time between photos, and records a 0.1-second shutter lag. Other rugged cameras we've tested, like the Pentax Optio WG-1 were much slower. The Pentax requires 2.3 seconds to start and shoot, makes you wait a full 3.7 seconds between shots, and records a lengthy shutter lag of 1.2 seconds.

I used Imatest to measure the camera's performance in terms of image sharpness and noise. The software analyzes a test chart as shot by the camera to deliver a center-weighted sharpness score, measured in lines per picture height. A score of 1,800 lines is considered to be very sharp, and the AW100 came in well above that metric—it recorded 2,166 lines. The Panasonic Lumix TS3 didn't do nearly as well, recording only 1,347 lines. It isn't the sharpest rugged that we've tested, that honor goes to the 2,461 lines recorded by the Olympus Stylus Tough-8010 ($399.99, 3.5 stars), but the AW100 does come close. 

The camera does a pretty good job in terms of image noise, but it's not the best in class. Images become noisier as the camera's sensitivity to light, measured as ISO, is increased. When a photo is composed of more than 1.5 percent noise, it is noticeably grainy. The AW100 keeps image noise below 1.5 percent through ISO 800, which lets you shoot with freedom in dimmer light. This matches the performance of the Olympus Tough TG-310 , but falls a bit shy of the Panasonic Lumix TS3 and Pentax Optio WG-1 —both of those cameras are capable of clean images through ISO 1600.

The AW100 has a built-in GPS that adds geographic coordinates to photos automatically. This lets you view the location at which they were taken when you use the camera with compatible software, like Picasa and iPhoto. The GPS works quite well, acquiring a signal in only a few minutes in my tests, but using it does cut into the camera's battery life. The camera also supports A-GPS, which is often used by cell phones to help speed position acquisition. You'll need to install A-GPS files manually—they are available for download from Nikon's website—as the camera doesn't have any sort of Wi-Fi or 3G connectivity.

Video is recorded in QuickTime format at 1080p30 resolution. The quality is quite good, and the camera can zoom in and out while recording. The noise of the lens moving is audible on the soundtrack of the video, however, and the camera sometimes has difficulty reacquiring focus after zooming. When in focus, details are sharp and colors are accurate. The camera supports standard SD, SDHC, and SDXC memory cards. It can connect to an HDTV via mini HDMI or to a computer via a proprietary USB port.

Overall, the AW100 is an excellent first attempt from Nikon at a rugged camera. The compact point-and-shoot feels polished and refined, and performs admirably on all fronts, delivering snappier performance and sharper images than our previous Editors' Choice rugged compact, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS3. That camera is a bit tougher, and is rated for use in cold temperatures where the AW100 is not, which still makes it a good choice for cold weather shooters. Like most rugged cameras, the AW100 is quite pricey. If you're on a budget and don't plan on taking your camera deeper than 10 feet underwater, you may want to consider the Olympus Tough TG-310, which is a full $180 less expensive than the AW100.

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