PHOTO QUALITY. This 13-megapixel waterproof and rugged camera captured images with merely fair quality. We judged this model very good for outdoor performance, such as shooting landscapes in the daytime; fair for indoor performance, such as photographing a well-lit basketball game in a gym.
FLASH. The CoolPIx W100 captured flash shots that were good. In our distance test, we found the camera's flash could illuminate most subjects that are closer to the camera, but had some problems with distant subjects. The flash also has very good, even coverage.
LENS. This camera has a standard 3x optical zoom lens.
IMAGE STABILIZATION. This is an important feature; taking hand-held shots at the telephoto end of the zoom range can generally blur or soften images due to the slight movement of your hands. Shooting telephoto in well-lit scenes, this model did a good job of minimizing the effects of camera shake. In low-light settings, it performed poorly and very often produced blurry photos. Overall, the shake reduction results from our tests were poor.
SPEED. In terms of performance, the Nikon CoolPIx W100 has a slow start up time. It has a relatively long interval between shots, which means you might miss an important shot when shooting fast-moving or unpredictable subjects.
VIDEO. The Nikon CoolPIx W100 takes good video. It captures full HD video at 1920 x 1080 30p. As for sound, it captures fair audio in stereo.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS. It has a small 2.6-inch LCD, which has good quality that lets you compose your shots and has decent playback of photos and video.
