Tougher Than You?

I am the camera slut. The digicam manufacturers dream customer.  I’ve bought so many digital cameras that I would have to sit and give it serious thought to count them, and most of them still work fine. Maybe later I’ll gather them all together for a group photo. The latest in the lineup is this Canon Powershot D10. The outstanding feature that prompted it’s purchase was it’s waterproof and ruggedized construction. That category seems to be the new growth category for the manufacturers, almost every one is comming out with a model now. The Canon is 10m (33ft) depth rated, just over 1m (4ft) drop rated, and “freezproof” rated to -10c (14f).

So why this one? Derek got one of the competing models, and it’s performance was less than stellar. The Canon has some compromises to the design, but for the most part it’s like one of their normal Powershots clad in a metalic matte finish bulbous shell, which is a good thing. One important factor is they did not compromise on optics and go with folded periscope style. That style gets you lots of zoom in a compact space that does not extend from body, but its image quality and brightness suffers. Image quality is pretty important to me, and I look at lower light performance a lot too. Just about all cameras will look good at the base lowest ISO sensitivity, but unless you shoot outdoors in bright light all the time, you often won’t be shooting at that.

In the weeks I’ve had it, the Canon D10 has born out the expectations I’ve had. It performs on par with Canon’s other Powershot compact cameras. At base ISO in good lighting, it’s 12M pixel image is excellent. As light drops and ISO rises, it suffers, but less than a lot of other cameras, esp considering it’s 12Mp crammed in that small a package. It does have a tendancy to blow out highlights, I shoot with a -1/3 exposure compensation set all the time. And those highlights show some pretty strong chromatic purple fringing.

Power on time is excellent, the lens does not extend from body so there is minimal time needed for the lens motor activation. The down side is the zoom is a fairly small 3x 35-105mm equavlancy range. My only complaint with that is that it is not wide enough for the mt bike trail action pics that I use it often for. The rest of the operation is pretty repsonsive since it sports their latest Digic processing chip. Menu system is no problem, esp for someone already familiar with Canon menus. A little dissapointingly the “burst” mode is a paltry 1.1 fps, basically useless for action shots. I’ve given up on it, rely on learning the shutter lag and trying to get the shot on the first hit. And when you have the flash going, the recycle and shutter lag time is quite long, but that’s pretty par for the course with all compact cams.

Construction on the made in Japan, plastic clad body feels quite solid and well put together. I did have one card error message that could only be cleared by opening, ejecting, and reinsterting the memory card. That would clearly be a problem under water. Haven’t had it again with a different card. The paint on the body and accesory panels are well done that it looks like matte aluminum. I found the finish to be a little slippery though. I fixed that by customizing the accesory panel with spray on rubbery tool handle dip. Hint Canon, offer a rubberized version in addition to all the fashion color panels in the add on accesory kit. The buttons are nicely laid out with a more positive pressure needed than normal cameras, which is good since you’re likely to be using it with gloves.

An unsual feature you’ll immediately notice when you see it is the funny octopus sucker holes at each corner. Those are actually bayonet style mounting points for the Canon accsesory straps.It comes with one small lanyard point and short wrist strap. An additional kit with three type of straps, three colors of face plates is available. I wonder a little about the security of the bayonet clips, but they seem to hold. The plastic biner clip on the one accesory strap I bought is another story. The finger tab to make it easier for you to open the clip also makes it prone to automatically unclip itself, which I’ve done more than a number of times already. It’s a good thing the camera is impact resistant as I’ve already tested that a number of times also. Sorry Canon, you lose on that one. Get rid of the finger tab. I’m likely to get rid of the strap and biner and make my own strap and clip anyway.

In summary, this is an excellent off road digicam. Picture quality is good, it uses common memory cards, response is generally good, controls easy to use. I can deploy it on the run one handed, shoot on the fly, and stow away while still riding. Haven’t had a problem with battery life. Waterproof so don’t have to worry about it if it rains (or snows). It’s a little bulky for a compact camera, but it’s still perfectly manageable. It’s shape is a bit unusual, not something a fashion conscous person would tote around town, but that doesn’t concern me. The small downsides is the wide angle isn’t wide enough, the burst mode for a camera touted as an “adventure” camera is painfully slow.

I don’t know about their marketing slogan on the poster, “Tougher than you”, I personally think they should have phrased it “As tough as you”. The impact rating is not NATO drop test, I seem to recall seeing the spec as a four foot drop onto wood floor. I’m sure a person dropped on their noggin from four feet onto wood wouldn’t fare well either, but still….

In any case, I am so far happy with this setup, I give it 3+ camera slut monkeys out of four.