Into the wild blue yonder
The Canon PowerShot D30 is a tough little camera that you’ll want to take along on your more adventurous holidays – especially if there’s water involved.
Have you ever snorkelled over a reef and wished you could take a pic of the colourful parrotfish gnawing away at the coral? Or have you sat precariously in a mokoro, wanting to photograph the gnarled buffalo grazing a few metres away but afraid you might drop your expensive D-SLR into the Okavango Delta? Maybe you just want to take fun family photos of your Labrador playing with the kids in the swimming pool? It’s situations like these where an underwater camera like the Canon PowerShot D30 comes into its own.
What’s to like? I took the Canon D30 to Madagascar recently for a paddling story (see go! #129). My wife Ronel and I also took our regular D-SLR and an assortment of lenses along, but we found ourselves using the D30 for most shots since we were on – or in – the water most of the day. The fact that you don’t have to worry about the camera getting wet means you have the freedom to experiment with interesting angles, which ends up in a photograph like the one featured here. The camera has a 12.1-megapixel CMOS sensor and a 28 mm wide-angle lens, and it works well in low-light situations (like when you’re under water). It has a 5x optical zoom (preferable to a digital zoom) and an underwater macro mode if you want to focus on the eye of that parrotfish. It also has something called “Smart Auto”, which analyses the scene and selects the optimal setting from 32 different variables. You can also use this mode when you’re shooting video at 1080p HD.
Is it easy to use? Just point, compose and shoot. Its toughness is possibly its best feature, though. It can survive a two-metre drop; you can dive to 25 m; you can use it in temperatures as low as -10° C and it’s dustproof, in case you get sandblasted on a dune in the Namib. Give the lens a wipe with a microfibre cloth and you’re good to go. You’ll still take better photographs with your D-SLR, but the D30 will add a new dimension to your holiday photo album.
R4 495 at orms.co.za