Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Nikon W300 Waterproof Underwater Digital Camera with TFT LCD, 3", Orange (26524)

High quality point & shoot for outdoor sports

Chris E

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2024

Great product for outdoor sports. Works in extreme cold; it also is waterproof (though I have not used it in water). Photos are very high quality.
Only caveat: self timer is only a maximum of 10 seconds.
I used to own a Canon point and shoot whose self timer had a maximum of 30 seconds - much more useful. But the Canon was rugged like this Nikon. The Nikon W300 is a great product at a great price.

DmT

NOT waterproof.

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2022

This waterpoof camera is NOT WATERPROOF! That's what I need you to know here. If that's good enough for you then move on.
If you want more details, then I will say that I loved this camera when I first got it. I researched a lot when I was looking at waterproof cameras. This one had good reviews. Other cameras were said to have issues. When I got it I thought it had really good photo quality. When taking photos with it I found that it dealt with low light situations better than my other cameras. It picked up colors better and more accurately than my other cameras.
I took it for one swim last summer and it was great. Took video and photos underwater very well. BUT THEN I took it out again and put it into a small amount of water and now there's water INSIDE THE LENS! The water did not come in through the door, because the camera itself is fine and its on the opposite side of the cameras lens. Now, whenever I take photos there's two drops of water that are jiggling around in the top right and bottom right side of the lens. It ruins every photo and video. I am so mad. I keep trying to find some way to get the water out via whatever way it came in. But the water won't come out. I don't understand how it got in! And I really can't get it out. If it's hot out then the water turns to steam and fogs up the whole lens. I really am mad. I spent north of 400 dollars on a waterproof camera that is not waterproof. And it's too late for me to even return it.

3 people found this helpful

Great camera, but insert an SD card before taking your first picture!

Mike Jones

Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2018

So far, so good anyway. Takes very clear pictures and videos underwater in our swimming pool, and I've had no leakage problems at all. Then again, I haven't dropped it in sandy beach ocean water, I can see how that would mess it up big time. Be SURE to put an SD card in it as soon as you receive it. There's not much onboard storage, and the Nikon SnapBridge software that's supposed to be able to offload pictures DOES NOT WORK! I tried every instruction in the manual, over and over, and could not get the camera to pair with my Android phone and dump pictures. If you start right out using an SD card, there's no issue at all in offloading pictures and videos. Be sure to get at least a 64Mb SD card, videos use a lot of storage memory.

2 people found this helpful

Nice improvement over the AW130

Aaron Smith

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2017

It's a little confusing why they didn't call this the Nikon AW140, as it is really the 4th camera in the series (following the AW100, AW110, AW120, and AW130).

On paper, no the W300 is not significantly better than the AW130. No improved sensor size, no improved zoom, and while it has 4k, no 4k 60P.

However there are a lot of hidden under-the-hood improvements that make this a significantly better camera than the AW130/AW120 (which are almost identical).

The image and video stabilization is significantly better. They also fixed a lot of white balance and dynamic range issues. The old AW series used to take a lot of work with exposure compensation and metering to get images that weren't over or under exposed...but the new W300 consistently does a much better job with this. This is especially noticeable shooting landscapes in overcast conditions. Nikon added D-lighting to this camera as well which really helps too.

Another nice plus was that they dialed down the noise blurring somewhat. Many of the old AW cameras would to fix noise, aggressively blur the image and then sharpen it, giving it a "water color" look. This was disastrous for some photos...for example shooting trees resulted in most of the leaves being smudged together giving you an "abstract painting". This is much improved now.

The screen is much improved which in some ways is minor, but it really does help with exposure compensation and seeing if your shot turned out.

On the downside, it is a much heavier camera than the previous AW's and they axed the map feature which I was really disappointed in.

Whether this is a worthy competitor to the Olympus TG-5 is a good question. I suspect the TG-5 does a better job of shooting low-light photos, making underwater videos and doing macro shots. While the W300 is likely a better camera for above-water video (mostly for its better stabilization), better average picture quality, and is more affordable.

134 people found this helpful

Great waterproof/lifeproof camera

AKSailor

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2017

This is a replacement for an earlier version, a Nikon AW100, that was stolen. We have a cruising sailboat in the South Pacific and a Nikon will produce the photos quality that we need to document our travels. Although I dive, I don't take the camera since a failure would leave us with phone cameras only. The waterproofness is essential. With the extra waterproof capabilities, this one is a bit heavier than our AW100. The video capabilities are so sophisticated that we're starting to move toward that, now. We recommend at least trying them. For us, color reproduction is essential and we seem to be getting that from the Nikon. The images are enormous and suitable for making holiday cards and such, a plus for us. Do buy a small camera bag or pouch since, even though it's heavily built, scratches and dents are possible without it. We also bought an AC charger for the battery since the included charger charges through the camera. Get a second battery, too. We also have a small plastic tripod, the legs for which can be wrapped around items and it's served us well.

4 people found this helpful

7176452451

Great Vacation Camera

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2019

We took this camera with us on our recent trip to Costa Rica. I wanted something a little bigger than our Go Pros, and i have to say i love this camera. It takes great footage and is SO easy to use ( I don't have to google stuff like i do with my go pro's sometimes ) - my kids were able to use it in the pools, oceans, etc. and we took it on the adventures, dropped it many times, it's dirty, it has scratches , but it still works perfect! great for people who " don't deserve nice things " :) :) :) or who have KIDS!!! :) A++++

AND OH! The first time i used it , the battery housing wasn't closed completely and i RUINED it!!!! But they replaced it, no questions asked!!! Nikon , you rock!

Dissapointing Picture Quality

Daniel Tyack

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2017

The camera is solid and online reviews seem pretty accurate. My complaint is that the image quality just doesn't compare to the iPhone 7 in my pocket. Naturally this seems completely pretentious. Please read on.

I was taking pictures with the W300 on a family vacation and noticed the images were grainy and just didn't look sharp. I was shooting out of the box and didn't mess with any "artistic" settings. I hated how it chose exposure based on my focus points (I did mess with different focus point styles) and I couldn't get the images to clear up no matter how I tried to expose the shot.

Long story short: Every shot I took was no where near as crisp as my phone camera. As an added bonus on a smart devise all you need to do is tap for a proper focus and exposure point.

The near $400 expense just isn't worth it for me. I already have a waterproof phone and if I need to dive deeper than a pool (which I do on occasion) a GoPro is significantly cheaper with significantly better image quality.

You would think that a camera company, producing a consumer grade camera would outperform a camera phone. The truth is, the W300 just doesn't compare. 3 stars because it's a solid unit but it is a camera after all and should at least produce good images...

I'm attaching an image as comparison. It was shot in bad lighting and I wasn't really trying to go for anything fancy. Just a shot of my kid fishing. I intentionally took a second shot with my iPhone after noticing the sharpness / ISO graininess issues. The image was edited at full resolution in Photoshop and exported at 72dpi.

PS: I'm not advising you swim with your iPhone. I'm just saying that in tests, it's fine for light weight water shots. Do so at your own risk.

31 people found this helpful

The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth do not work independently.

John Zwiebel

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2019

Once I figured out how to use "Snapbridge", I started to like this camera. We did a 3-day cruise to the Yasawa islands north of Nadi Fiji. I am very pleased with how good the photos look on my mac laptop.

Now to say a few unflattering words.

The instructions that come with this camera are in two very thick books which somehow manage to contain absolutely no information of any value at all. The "action" button on the side of the camera that is suppose to support "shaking" the camera to cause it to display different photos is a complete waste of functionality. The old version of this camera provided some really cool GPS functions, but I guess too many people thought it was a real GPS and perhaps got lost using it. The W300 will record GPS locations and it does sync up with the GPS systems which is "kind of" nice for being able to recall where you took a photo, but I haven't yet found it all that useful. The lat/long information does not show up in "Photos" nor on the Snapbridge App, nor in the camera.

More importantly though is that one of the major selling features of this camera is that you are suppose to be able to set it up to wirelessly transfer your photos from the camera to a "smart device". That means you cannot transfer them to your computer but only to your phone. This requires that you download an application called "Snapbridge" to your phone. The camera comes with a manual that purports to describe how to use the "Snapbridge", but it provides conflicting instructions. Although the manual does discuss Wi-Fi connections, a Bluetooth connection must be established first. I had once set up Bluetooth one time after several hours of trying. Once it was finally set up, it appeared it would continue to work, but after a couple of weeks of not using my W300 it refused to automatically connect.

Well, it turns out that you need to first "forget this device" in the Bluetooth list of devices in settings on your iPhone, and then when you try to reestablish the connection you must SIMULTANEOUSLY select the camera on your iPhone -AND- press the OK button on the camera. This requirement is well hidden at the back of the snap bridge manual.

Now to download photos from my camera to my smart device, I have to "switch to wifi". This means your wifi can no longer be used to connect to the internet.

The photos on your camera will then be displayed. You have to individually select each one that you want to download. There is no "select all" option. {Note: "select all" is now available}

There is suppose to be a way to use an android emulator on your mac that will allow you to run Snap Bridge. I was able to install the NOX emulator and download the Snapbridge app, but it fails when it tries to turn on the Bluetooth (which was already on) and is stuck.

Again, I'm quite happy with the performance of the camera. It takes some very nice photos and the "scene selection" option even works well under water. When I would take a photo above the surface, it selected the right option and those photos also look good.

Finally, if you just cannot stand the use of Snapbridge you can always use the cable to download the photos directly to your camera.

Nikon also provides 15G of free disk space to back up your photos. Snapbridge can be used to upload the photos. I'm not sure this is a "good thing" or not.

Addendum: I took this camera to Portugal for 6 weeks. I want to remind you that I was very disappointed with the "WiFi" download. Well, the download worked perfectly for those 6 weeks. If i were to guess, I think it has something to do with the way Bluetooth works. I've noticed with other Bluetooth devices, if you manage to get a Bluetooth connection for the first 10 to 20 times (a WAG) that after that, Bluetooth becomes much more reliable at making a connection. After this trip, it is almost as if my camera is acting like a spurned lover trying to "reconnect". It takes seconds to get my phone to recognize the camera and set up the WiFi for download.

All I can say is, if you can perceiver through the initial "pairing" operations, once the camera figures out the phone it is suppose to be connected to, it will rapidly reconnect.

OTOH, I wonder what will happen if I get a new phone. No Good I'm sure.

OK, it is several months later. I have upgraded my phone to ios13.5.1. I had upgraded the camera firmware to 1.4 after the Portugal trip. I also upgraded to Snapbridge 2.7.0. All of these are the "latest". My phone and camera will not connect to one another. In the past, the Bluetooth connection was usually made. Now even that isn't working. I tried to forget the camera in bluetooth on my phone. I am extremely frustrated. Tried to call Nikon, but they have "unusually high call volumes so use 'chat'," after a 10 minute wait for a chat connection, I gave up. I've wasted 90 minutes trying to reconfigure this.

A "solution", is to:
-- forget this device in iPhone Bluetooth settings
-- forget this device in SnapBridge
-- Reset Default settings on your camera
-- try to re-pair starting from the beginning. (this worked for me)

4 people found this helpful

ADRIANA L.

A nikon bam-bam

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2023

super práctica, facil de usar. se sincroniza con el celular para enviar las fotos de manera sencilla. la gente se asusta porque se me moja o la undo en el rio y yo me río de ello. al igual que cuando llueve, todos guardan sus celulares y yo soy la única que saca fotos jajaja. el manejo del close-up es mas de lo que esperaba. buena calidad en pixeles.

Super practical, easy to use. It synchronizes with the cell phone to send the photos in a simple way. People are scared because it gets wet or muddy in the river and I laugh at it. Like when it rains, everyone puts away their cell phones and I'm the only one taking pictures haha. Close-up handling is more than I expected. Good quality in pixels.