Canon PowerShot D10

Opinion: The picture quality is quite good and I was happy with this camera until I used it for the first time under water. I only managed to take four pictures on a snorkel trip to Maui, nothing more than two feet deep. The screen turned dark and upon inspection I found the camera full of sea water. I removed the card and battery. I then rinsed the camera with fresh tap water. With both covers open I used a vacuum cleaner on the battery chamber and hot air from a hair dryer on the USB opening. I kept doing this while switching sides until all the water and moisture was removed. The camera got pretty hot though. I reinstalled the battery and card and the camera is back in action with the same picture quality as before. I would not dare getting it back in the water. So it is useless as an underwater camera.

My daughter was using her Sony DSC TX5 underwater camera throughout the trip with good picture quality under water without any issues. The Sony is an older camera and quite beaten up but never showed any signs of moisture after a week of snorkeling.

Opinion: I bought my D10 because I wanted a small rugged camera I could take on vacations instead of my bulky dSLR. The D10 seemed a good choice, as I had good experiences with Canon Powershot cameras before, and it had received good reviews here on dpreview.

At first I thought my camera was defective, but it's been serviced and apparently this is really how the camera is.

The automatic modes are effectively unusable due to extremely poor white balance and metering. I have found the only way to get correctly exposed images is by using program mode, setting exposure correction at -1 stop, locking ISO, and manually setting white balance.

Noise is noticeable even at 100 ISO, and strong at all ISO's higher than 200; conversely at all ISO lower than 200 you're going to get long exposure times even in full sunlight, and the image stabilization helps little to nothing.
On my camera the closest focus distance in macro mode is NOT 3 cm as the manual claims, but 30 cm, regardless of zoom.

The image quality is very slightly better than what I get with my cellphone camera, noticeably worse than I got with my old Coolpix 4500, and not even comparable to my dSLR.

On the plus side chromatic aberration is low, and the D10 exactly as rugged and waterproof as it claims, making it a good option if you just want a cheap camera for watersports. As for me I'm still lugging around my dSLR on vacations. It is possible the image quality of the D10 is the least-worst of the waterproofs, but it's not good enough for general use.

Opinion: Excellent inexpensive camera. I initially purchased this camera for it's underwater feature only and figured I could use my other camera for everything else. After seeing how clear ALL of the pics turned out, I've used it as an everyday camera. The camera's video mode is quite nice too. I recorded the entire "changing of the guards" at Arlington Cemetery and it was crisp and clear. It's nice to finally have a camera you can take literally EVERYWHERE and not worry about it getting banged around or wet. This is not a high tech professional camera, but for your everyday snapshots - I am VERY impressed.

Opinion: This camera is a joy to use. If you're going to be in/around water I can't recommend this camera enough. Peace of mind! I walked, hiked, swam and kayaked around Hong Kong for ten days, rarely touching a setting, and wound up with properly focused macros, portraits, landscapes, and watchable video clips. We were all impressed with the auto mode intelligence. Save for night shots, which this camera does *not* do well (seriously, I'd tote another just for night), image quality was more than acceptable for the user who plans to make a few sm./med. prints and share photos electronically. If you snap a lot, do get an extra battery. Two, charged each night, worked well for me - if I were planning on recording a lot of video I'd carry three.

Opinion: I just bought this camera for a trip to Mexico. Excellent images under water and I don't tell you the faces of the people around me : Is this a underwater camera ?
Yes and a very good camera for every moment in holidays.

Opinion: I bought this little Camera prior to our trip to Jamaica. My girlfriend did not want to have to drag either my 1D or 5D and lenses on this trip. After reading several reviews, I made my purchase and could not be happier.

The first thing I will say to anyone that buys a new camera is to read the manual. On the plane I thumbed through the manual and found everything to be laid out pretty well and easy to access. I am not normally a point and shoot person but this little camera is fun to use. The fact that it does video as well is simply amazing for the price.

Since we intended to take some diving lessons I bought the accessory kit which is pretty expensive. It basically consists of a series of round metal straps of different lengths and the ability to change the color of your camera body if you want to. All I cared about was the straps because I did not want to lose the camera under the water. The straps connect securely and the different lengths help make the camera easy to carry and use in different situations.

I also bought an extra battery and took plenty of memory with me. By the way you can put a 16GB SDHD card in this camera with no issues.

In the past, I have tried different brands of point and shoots and always passed on them because they seemed so slow to respond. This even includes the G3 which was a little bit more advanced. The D10 is a rocket compared to early P/s cameras. You also have quite a bit of fine tuning you can do. I also was worried because there was no viewfinder but I quickly adapted to framing with the LCD.

I found this little camera very responsive on land and below water. The images for such a little camera are outstanding and the color is rich. Underwater the camera compensates if you put it in that mode and the colors came out well. Add to this the image stabilization and what more could you ask for. Oh yes Canon knows how to build image stabilization in the camera and they do it quite well. The buttons are big and the camera is very simple to operate which is very important under the water.

I also know the review on DPR mentioned that the range of the lens could be better. I have to say that if the person that wrote that was an experienced Diver they would understand the focal length. Underwater is a whole different world and this is an underwater camera. The depth limitation is understandable as well because the deeper you go the more light you need. Since there is no underwater flash for the D10 you have to stay at depths which allow enough light for the camera to do its job.

Besides my underwater pictures I was able to get some outstanding sunsets as well as portraits. In fact this camera was so fun for me to use, when I got home I kept grabbing it.

From what I have experienced and I have owned this camera since early August, this little point and shoot will be hard to beat. Even the video works well and its certainly good enough video for the web.

Opinion: Brilliant little camera. I get best results in P mode, vivid and -1/3EV. Low light performance is quite good with ISO400 very usable.

Opinion: Just returned from a snorkeling trip to Hananuma Bay (Oahu) and Molokini (Maui). The D10 allowed me to bring back some amazing underwater memories. With the underwater setting, all colours came through in true and sharp detail. The buttons and menu system were easy to use and read in the water. The camera performed flawlessly up to and perhaps beyond the 10 meter limit at Molokini when free diving with friends who were using special underwater housings on their cameras. The lens and LCD screen were easy to keep clean and a simple rinse under the tap and the camera was ready to go for the rest of the day.

Opinion: Camera failed.

Due to fault unable to use camera at all for what it was primarily purchased for - use in the water.

Ending up with very expensive overseas phone call to try to resolve problem with no result.

Bought diposable underwater camera and got full refund of camera.

Very annoyed.