COOLPIX W300

Hey everyone! Just wanted to do a review about the Coolpix W300 from Nikon. I recieved the camera as a gift a couple years ago. I took it on a trip to Belize to do some underwater photography during some snuba diving ( Not scuba, snuba. There is a difference). It worked well during our 15-20 ft. salt water dive. I followed all the directions about caring for the camera during and after underwater usage. I took some pictures months later and they turned out fine. However, two years after the Belize trip, I tried taking some underwater pictures at our local community pool, and when I pulled it out of the water, the camera started malfunctioning. I found a bunch of almost unnoticable hairline cracks in the plastic surrounding the electronics inside. What a bummer! I never dropped the camera or ever misused it; the plastic must be cheap or something. I would not recommend this camera to anyone after seeing what happened to mine, especially for the price! A $400.00 camera down the drain because of cheap plastic. Anyone who owns one of these cameras needs to look at it very closely after each underwater usage to check for a CRACKED CAMERA! I use other Nikon products, but non of them so far have dipleased me like this camera.

I used it underwater (salt) to depths of 60 feet. No leaks, and decent photos. One really odd thing I can´t figure out....in underwater mode, though it corrects the color ok, the iso is only ´set´ to iso 125 or so. As anyone knows...even with bright lights...the fish are not sitting still and iso 125 gave shutter speeds of only 1/60 or even slower. (ISO can be changed manually, but you are no longer in ´underwater mode´. If Nikon could make the iso 400 or so, and ´insist´ the shutter speed be much faster, it would be a GREAT camera. (In the meantime, I´m going back to my large D700 in the water-proof housing and pray it doesn´t ever flood!)

I bought this camera to use while scuba diving. I was amazed at how well it performs, and so was every body else on the dive boat, even those with elaborate camera setups. I was also concerned that it was too small for one-handed operation but it was no problem. The auto flash worked well. When at depth and I needed more light, I had my video light in my other hand. Without a bulky housing I even took some ´´blind´´ photos by aiming under a ledge where I couldn´t see. Switching to/from macro was easy too? The on-screen depth monitor agreed with my own depth gauge throughout the dive and recorded the depth of each photo. The on-screen compass was handy and helpful. My only suggestion would be to add a ´´location lock´´ to the GPS to mark where I jumped into the water, which would make the return to the boat easier and quicker. I selling my previous camera and u/w housing.