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The first of the newcomers to the underwater world is Canon, with the PowerShot D10. Of all the models in this round-up, the D10 is the one that looks like it would be most at home underwater. In fact if you look at it from the side it looks almost like a miniature submarine, with its rounded bulbous shape and porthole-like lens window. It's definitely a camera though, and rather a good one. It has a 12.1-megapixel 1/2.33-inch CCD sensor, a 3x zoom f/2.8 lens and a 2.5-inch 230k monitor. The body is made of plastic, but the curvy shape gives it an inherent strength and the build quality is well up to Canon's usual high standard. Like the mju 8000 the D10 is waterproof to 10m, freeze-proof to -10 centigrade and shockproof, although Canon doesn't make any specific claims about survivable drop height. The D10 is an expensive camera, currently selling for around £300.

The design of the D10 is, to say the least, unusual. Of the four cameras in this test it is by far the largest, measuring a chunky 103.6 x 66.9 x 48.8mm, however it is quite light for its size, weighing approximately 210g including battery and card. While it does sink, the D10 is the closest to achieving neutral buoyancy, and feels light and unencumbering while swimming. On each corner of the body is a metal socket, and the heavy-duty wrist cord is attached to any one of these via a nifty little clip-on fitting. It's a bit of a gimmick (simple loops would have sufficed) but it does mean you can attach the cord wherever you want. There is supposed to be an optional neck harness available, but I could find no sign of this on Canon's website.


The controls are large and clearly labelled, and it is just about possible to operate the camera while wearing gloves. The D10 is better adapted for underwater use than the other compacts in this test, with a brighter and less reflective LCD monitor and a larger flash diffuser producing less light scattering. In terms of features it's a pretty basic camera, with only Smart Auto and scene modes, but it does include face detection and of course Canon's acclaimed optical image stabilisation system and DIGIC 4 image processor.


Since it shares its internal workings with Canon's other latest compacts the D10's overall performance is very good. It has a shot-to-shot time of approximately 2.2 seconds per frame, and in continuous mode it can maintain one frame per second. The autofocus system is fast and accurate, and the overall image quality is the best of these four cameras. Surprisingly for a 12MP compact image noise is not a problem at all, with virtually no noise at 400 ISO, and only a little blurring from the noise reduction at 1600 ISO. This has obvious advantages for underwater photography, since light levels drop off rapidly the deeper you go.

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