Dad Gadgets: The Nikon AW100 Waterproof Camera

One thing that is important to me here at The Gizzard Stone is taking pictures. I take a lot of photos with my crappy smartphone because it is always in my pocket, and sometimes has a battery charge. But last year, on the recommendation of my friend Photo John, editor of PhotographyReview.com I bought a rugged, waterproof, shockproof, freeze proof, rustproof camera to always have in my pocket of taking photos of fun stuff in fun situations (since in my world fun always involves a mess).

I got the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-TX10 16.2 MP Waterproof Digital Still Camera, and love having something that can fall out of my pocket roll down a hill, through a sand pit, over a log, get eaten by a badger and pooped into a creek. Granted that doesn’t happen super often, but often enough that it’s worth having. As a dad who likes to ride, ski, hike and generally wallow around in filth with his kid, a camera like this is indispensable.  A lot of the photos and video you see on this blog are from this camera including the images from my post on The Nevada Discovery Museum. Here’s my review of the Sony Cybershot TX10.

So, this year Photo John has a new recommendation for a camera you can let your kid play with in a back yard and feed to the dog:

The Nikon AW100 Waterproof Camera

Click over to Photography Review for the full run down on  The Nikon AW100 and check out John’s photos after you watch the video.

It’s a really wonderful outdoor point-and-shoot – rugged, reliable and quick – all the things you want from a camera you take along for mountain biking, skiing and other outdoor activities. And although the image quality isn’t as good as a non-waterproof point-and-shoot camera, it’s the best I’ve seen so far from a rugged, compact camera and it’s more than good enough for 8.5×11-inch and maybe even 11×14-inch prints. [Photo John | PhotographyReview.com]

Eye-Fi card

In the poster frame of that video you can see the strange SD memory cary in John’s camera. That’s an Eye-Fi Wireless Flash Memory Card. Smartphones have one thing cameras don’t have and that’s an Internet coneection. But if you spend a little extra money on your SD memory card you could have that in your camera too. The Eye-Fi Wireless Flash Memory Card for your camera will make it easier to take photos of your kid and post them to Facebook. Here is my detailed review of the Eye-Fi Wireless Flash Memory Card. My point-and-shoot photography workflow is the following.

1. Go out and take pictures (8 hours)
2. Get home, turn on camera and start shoveling food into kids face (5 minutes)
3. Turn on computer and open iPhoto (photos from camera import) (5 minutes)
4. Post photos to Facebook (1 minute)
5. Have a beer (the rest of the day)

Other awesome things about an Eye-Fi Card

• You can set your card to automatically share to Facebook, Picasso or Flickr if you want, even add a custom title and caption.
• If you’re at a party or event you can set the meta data and auto share everything. I have everything set to auto share to Picasso as private just for backup purposes
• The card automatically removes images you’ve downloaded to your computer so you never have to worry about space
• You never even have to take it out of the camera
• You can even set it to send images straight to your phone or tablet
• It’ll geotag your photos using the info in nearby Wireless networks
• It’s easy and simple to set up
• It’s the most useful piece of technology that no one knows about

No mat what camera you have, get the Eye-Fi Wireless Flash Memory Card. It’ll make your life a lot easier.

-Mike