Cannon Powershot D10 Underwater Camera

[Vanguard]

Anyone have one of these?   I've purchased one but haven't recieved it yet.   I've seen the image quality of it and it looks good.   My question for anyone who has one; Have you used it in saltwater?   If so, how has it held up?  I'm assuming that like most of my scuba gear that if I just give it a fresh water bath after using in salt water, it will be okay.

[shardian]

I wanted to upgrade to an underwater camera a while back. The more research I did, the less I wanted them. It seems that almost every waterproof model works great...until you take it in the water - especially salt water.

[Vanguard]

Yeah, most of the underwater cameras on the market hardly are.   They are good to 10 feet.   This one is an exception.  It is good to 33 feet.  It gets great reviews and I've seen video shot at around 30 feet with it and it looked awesome.  It performs really well in low light as well.

I couldn't find anyone commenting on the long term ruggedness of these cameras.  Found a lot of video and pictures taken in salt water though.

My biggest concern is the construction and corrosion.   No matter how much you give things a fresh water bath, you always get some corrosion.  Unless of course its plastic.   

I also have a Sea & Sea DX-D80 housing with twin YS110 for my DSLR but lugging that around on snorkel trips with the kids is too cumbersome.   I only use that on dives.   I just wanted a simple point and shoot for vacations that the whole family could use.  My wife is intimidated by the D80.

[Vanguard]

You mean an easyshare with a case?  I haven't seen an underwater version of the easy share.  My mom has an easy share and it sucks as a land camera.   Can't imagine Kodak making a decent underwater.

[shardian]

Kodak cameras are horrible.

Personally, I have taken my Canon A570IS on a log flume ride in a ziplock baggie. It worked like a charm. I wouldn't take it in water like that though, nor would I trust those thicker plastic baggies meant for underwater camera use. It is too easy to poke a hole through a bag.

[ChadTower]

Kodak cameras are horrible.

I worked at Kodak on their digital cameras of ~6 years ago and the Easyshare client software.

shardian is right.  Not much has changed in terms of hardware quality.

[ChadTower]

$15 where I work.  Odds are you'll get some reasonable shots from that given that it's a disposable camera taking shots underwater.  Anyone with high expectations is using the wrong camera.

[shardian]

We use the disposable underwater cameras on vacation. Cheap, mostly effective, and they float. I won't cry a river if I lose/break it either.

I think we bought ours last year for $7.

[Vanguard]

I've tried these and they are okay in a couple feet of water.   Get down 10 feet and the film is too fast for the light levels.   The pictures come out very grainy.  Plus, it is very hard to look through the viewfinder with a mask on.

Not to mention, you don't know what you've got until you develop the film.   A lot of times there is silt in the water that you can't see when you look through the camera.  When the flash goes off, it illuminates.  What looked like a good pictures winds up being crap and you don't know it until you develop the film.

I switched from a Sea & Sea Motormarine II film camera to the Nikon DSLR with housing because of this.   I would shoot 10 rolls of 35mm film and get a handful of good pictures.   

[Vanguard]

Got the camera this weekend and played with it in the pool.   Not a true indication of it's performance in just 7-8 feet of water but early impression is that it is a very nice camera.   It was a little scary to submerge it for the first time.   It has all the normal external controls that a regular camera does and it really doesn't look waterproof.   It was though.

Once I get it in some crystal clear ocean water, I'll have better impression of the image quality.   The pool has been a little cloudy from all the use and rain we've been having.

Out of the water, I was happy with the image quality too.  Zoom is a little weak at only 3x but it is fine for my intended use.

My big concern was the construction of it and the opportunity for corrosion.  It does have a number of hex bolts which appear to be stainless steel and the body is a metallic like plastic so I'm not too concerned about the body. 

[Vanguard]

Overall I'm very impressed with this camera.   It has an underwater mode that corrects the absorption of red that occurs underwater.   It really worked well and with no flash at all, it produce a really nice quality image.   It almost looks like a DSLR with a strobe.   It would be nice to have a wider field of view but that is what a DSLR is for. 

Having finger tip access to all the menus and buttons is really nice.   The video looks really good as well but lacks the red absorption feature.   This was a little disappointing but I really bought it as a still camera and had low expectations for the video mode anyway.   The video mode above water actually exceeded my expectations.

I had to reduce the quality of the image to meet the 1024kb image size so this image is actually heavily compressed.

[shardian]

Wow! That camera takes some really good photos underwater.

[Vanguard]

I'm very happy with it.  It also had good battery life.  I was able to use it all day without running the battery down.

With the red absorption correction, you don't need the flash underwater most of the time which really helps.

Below are pictures with the red absorption correction ON/OFF.   You can really see the difference.

Again, these images are both reduced in size and heavily compressed.

[ChadTower]

That's really nice.  Couldn't get those sort of pics in the water here - too cold and too dark.  Even 6-8' down you can't really see very far without a light.

[Vanguard]

Yeah, the Florida Keys has some awesome water clarity.  Also warm too.