Gear Review: Nikon L18 Camera
What’s the best camera for the marine environment? After reading this Associated Press article, I’ll go for the Nikon Coolpix L18 with underwater housing. The L18 model survived an 1,100 mile ocean voyage submerged and even fought off a sea turtle while recording.
Coast Guard Investigator Paul Shultz came across the red Nikon L18 camera while he was walking along a Key West, Florida marina on May 16th. Covered by a beat up underwater case, the camera was in superb condition. Shultz, with no luck identifying the owner with the pics on the memory card, turned to Scubaboard.com with some of the pics. It took only a matter of days until the photos were identified as taken in Aruba, 1,100 miles from where the camera was located. Schultz posted the pics to Aruba.com which were identified by a woman who recognized some of the children in the photos. As it turns out, the camera belongs to Dick de Bruin, a sergeant in the Royal Dutch Navy. Bruin was trying to salvage an anchor from the USS Powell for a WWII memorial when his camera floated away.
For a little over $100, you get an 8MP camera, supporting software, and a pair of AA batteries. Add a memory card and the underwater case and you’re set for marine ops. With still image and video functions and modes including panorama and continuous shooting (2 shots per second), it has more features than a basic camera, but is ready out of the box with point and shoot capability. The underwater housing is good to 200 feet so sea spray won’t phase it.
For those interested, below is the YouTube video of the camera’s battle with a sea turtle.
