The reason for this purchase is simple. There are times that I wish that I had a camera with me. There are times when I don’t want to carry a camera around my neck (work) and times when I leave my camera at home to protect it (rainy weather). I bought this camera because it is compact, waterproof, and had about as good a lens as you can find on such a camera.
This camera gives me a much different setup than I’m used to. There are a lot of modes available, and quite a bit actually act differently. There’s a panorama mode that allows you to get help in shooting a panoramic image or even hold the shutter release and move the camera to get the complete panorama without having to stitch anything together. There’s a backlighting mode which is where you go if you want an in-camera HDR picture.
While the modes provide variety, they really aren’t anything too special. The reason that I bought this camera means that I’m probably not carrying my tripod. This takes away the appeal of in-camera HDR. The in-camera panoramas are much lower resolution than if I used software on my computer. While you can change exposure compensation and white balance with this camera, it’s not as quick and easy as I’m used to with a DSLR. Also, the AW100 predictably aims for more casual snap shooters than I am. Since I usually go after wildlife in the early morning, my DSLR is usually kept on Aperture Value priority mode with my aperture wide open. I predictably don’t have such an option with my new camera. Of course, wildlife isn’t a good subject for this camera.
Image quality is another concern. In all honesty, I never expected the quality to impress me with this camera. This is primarily due to the fact that I have been using a DSLR. When you zoom in on JPEGs created by this camera, nothing ever looks crisp. Details are lost. This is obviously a camera that was given a high pixel count purely for the sake of looking better on paper. But like I said, I didn’t expect much. I can always scale back images if I want and essentially create smaller images that take away some of the imperfections.
Another feature of the camera is a built-in GPS. I have tried it out, and get a seriously jagged path, even on straight stretches. This really isn’t a very good GPS, but it can at least find a ballpark area of where a picture was taken. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do the best job of finding satellites. I haven’t been able to locate a single satellite in several weeks. I can download a file to help the GPS, but the camera keeps failing to update. The two primary reasons that I bought this camera will seriously devalue the GPS. I’m not going to keep the camera and GPS on all day, so I’m not going to be able to get it going when I take a spur of the moment shot. Since it seems to struggle with weather, I really can’t get it going for pictures in the rain.
The bottom line is that this camera serves its purpose. It might take some time to get used to its quirks, but the quirks are not that surprising. The zoom doesn’t get me anywhere near what my 500mm DSLR lens can do. To get the most out of this camera, I need to start paying more attention to overall scenes instead of specific targets. I also need to pay more attention to changes is scenes that will reduce the chances that I could go back with my DSLR at the same spot and get a better picture. This camera really needs to be about capturing moments that I can’t replicate. Hopefully, I can adapt. While I still have a long way to go, I think that I’m on the right track.
Here are some of the shots that I have taken so far with this camera:
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