[With Sample Photos] Swimming Through the City: 25m Waterproof Canon PowerShot D30

Hello.

This time I'd like to introduce the "Canon PowerShot D30," a rugged camera born in 2014.
"World's deepest 25m waterproofing," "2m shockproof," "freezeproof to -10°C": it's a monster machine lined up with rugged numbers built to survive harsh wilderness.

But I want to say this loud and clear. Where this camera is truly interesting is on bone-dry city asphalt under clear skies, where there's not the slightest worry about getting wet.

Dressed in everyday clothes instead of a diving suit, I stuffed this rugged blue lump into my pocket and headed out into the city. I went out on the most luxurious kind of snapshot outing, one you might call "wasting a treasure."

Why Take a Rugged Camera Into the City

The luxury of taking 25m-waterproof gear out not into harsh outdoors, but into the gentle dappled sunlight of everyday life.

■ The "Hard-Edged Blue Sky" of Old That Smartphone AI Forgot

Modern smartphone cameras are too smart. See a blue sky and it says, "Saturation boost!" See a building's shadow and it forcibly brightens the dark areas, turning everything into similar-looking "well-behaved pictures."

To put it unkindly, they're all flat and fake-looking. But the pictures the D30 produces are somehow rugged and straightforward.

A piercing blue sky and intense sunlight. Not a razor-sharp 100% crop, but a cohesive "photograph" as a whole.

A 1/2.3-type sensor with about 12.1 megapixels: by modern standards, "modest specs." Which is exactly why the highlights of buildings struck by strong daylight can't hold on and just barely start to blow out to white.

But that's what I like. The texture, as if the light itself were burned onto the image along with the feeling of "wow, it's so blinding today," is wonderfully pleasant.

White clouds peeking out between skyscrapers. It has a robust three-dimensionality reminiscent of 2000s digital SLRs.

■ Deliciously Cooking the "Primary Colors" Overflowing in the City

The colors produced by Canon's DIGIC image processor remain strong even in a rugged camera. Reds, blues, and plants in particular are tremendously fun.

Flowers blooming in unbelievable density against a backdrop of high-rises. Not "boosted" like on a smartphone, but the vivid pink of memory.

A contrast as if life force were exploding in just this spot within a cold gray concrete jungle. The D30 captures it superbly.

A blue vending machine and a well-used bicycle found in a back alley. The crispness of the power line's shadow cast on the road surface is pleasing.

A smartphone would surely have flattened and brightened the whole scene. But the D30 lays down the vending machine's blue, the red of the no-entry sign, and the sharp shadows with their contrast intact. An ordinary street fragment suddenly takes on the context of street snapshots from the dawn of compact digicams.

■ Freedom From Overprotectiveness: The Thrill of Scraping It Along the Ground

When you carry a premium compact worth over 100,000 yen, or a latest smartphone you'd cry over if the screen cracked, your shooting style inevitably becomes refined. You fear scratches and end up babying the camera.

But this one has an ironclad body that's "2m shockproof."

Greenery living strongly in a crack in the asphalt, with a bicycle's shadow creeping toward it. The reassurance of being able to point the lens at what's underfoot in daily life without hesitation.

A small green plant poking out of a gap between sidewalk interlocking pavers, from an unbelievably small amount of soil. A vivid pink flower blooms there, and the shadows of the wheel and pedal of a bicycle someone must have parked there overlap crisply in the strong sunlight.

The moment I thought "Oh, nice" while walking, I raised the D30 without a trace of hesitation, looked down at my feet, and pressed the shutter.

With a premium compact or a bare smartphone, a moment of hesitation like "What if my hand slips and I drop it on the concrete..." or "What if it gets scratched..." puts the brakes on the urge to shoot. But with the D30, like a tool that's meant to be used hard, you can point the camera wherever your eyes move without any delay.

A sturdy camera means the photographer's footwork loses its hesitation. The D30 reminds you how free and exhilarating snapshots without fear of scratches can be.

■ Restoring the Compact Camera's Knack for "Cutting Out" Everyday Life

A smartphone's wide-angle lens is excellent, but its one flaw is that it captures "too much of everything." The D30's lens, in contrast, is equivalent to 28-140mm (5x optical). This "slightly narrower" field of view cuts away the noise of the city.

From a pedestrian overpass, a high-angle view of a person walking under a white parasol. Sharp stripes of shade created by intense light.

The lens itself is by no means bright. But this "cheapness in a good way (excuse me!)" moderately tames strong daylight and produces sharp, tight blacks (shadows). This is the real joy of snapshots.

The blue uniforms of working men, the vivid yellow of heavy machinery. Even a demolition site in the city becomes raw drama through the D30.

■ The Ultimate "Secret Menu" for Walking Around Tokyo

A blue glass skyscraper seen looking up from the end of a narrow alley. The rhythm of cutting out the gaps of the city is outstanding.

The large buttons are designed to be operated even while wearing diving gloves. In the crowds of the city, this brings unbeatable comfort to the sequence of raising it with one hand, shooting, and returning it to your pocket.

"It's a waterproof camera, so you use it at the sea or in the mountains." Why not toss that common sense in the trash, just once?

Take this chunky, lovable companion out into the concrete jungle, and a robust, vivid everyday world appears in the viewfinder, a little different from the world seen through a smartphone screen.

If you find one on the used market, before sinking it in the sea, please try "abducting" it as a city snapshot shooter. I'm sure the streets you're used to walking will look just a little different.

View all PowerShot D30 listings

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