The Canon PowerShot D20 ($349.99 direct) is a very tough 12-megapixel camera with a fun aqua and black design and a sharp 5x zoom lens. It can go as deep as 33 feet underwater, survive drops up to five feet, and operate in temperatures as low as 14°F. It isn't the speediest tough camera that we've tested, but it does feature a GPS, so all of your photos will have location data added automatically. A candidate for our Editors' Choice award, it was edged out by the Olympus Tough TG-1 iHS ($399.99, 4.5 stars)—a speedier camera with a fast f/2 lens and a sleeker, more versatile design.

Design and Features

The D20  is laid out like most other rugged compacts—its lens is in the top corner, and most of its physical controls, including the zoom buttons, are located on its back. The body is a hard, composite plastic in black with aqua metal accents. It measures 2.8 by 4.4 by 1.1 inches and weighs 8 ounces, making it a bit larger and heavier than the 2.6-by-4.4-by-0.9-inch, 6.3-ounce Nikon AW100 ($379.95, 4 stars), but is slimmer than its predecessor, the Canon PowerShot D10 ($329.99, 4 stars)—that camera has a bulging front lens that gives it a 1.9-inch depth.

A 5x zoom lens covers a 28-140mm (35mm equivalent) focal length, which is the same field of view covered by the AW100, TG-820 , and Pentax Optio WG-2 GPS ($399.95, 3.5 stars). Like these other cameras, it's a very useful zoom range when you're not underwater, but optical refraction makes it a bit less wide angle when you've got your SCUBA gear on—cutting its wide field of view to about 37mm. If you want a top-end tough camera with a wider lens, consider the Olympus Tough TG-1 iHS —it's got a 25-100mm lens that produces a wider field of view, but sacrifices some telephoto reach.

The 3-inch rear display packs a 461k-dot resolution. It's very bright and crisp, but not as sharp as the 1,030k-dot display on the Olympus Tough TG-820 ($299.99, 4 stars). Apart from the On/Off button, shutter release, and Playback button—which are located topside—all of the controls are to the right of the LCD.  There are separate buttons to zoom in and out, as well as to activate Macro mode and control the flash. There's no Exposure Compensation control, you'll have to access that by hitting the center Function button and adjusting the software overlay menu, which makes it more difficult to brighten or darken your shot on the fly. All of the buttons are hard plastic, and are quite nice to push—much better than the rubberized controls found on lower-end rugged cameras like the Olympus Tough TG-320 ($179.99, 3 stars).

You can take the camera underwater to as deep as 33 feet, drop it from a height of 5 feet, and use it in temperatures as low as 14°F. The GPS works very well, but does require about two minutes to lock onto a signal. It isn't crushproof like the Pentax Optio WG-2, nor does it have a dual locking mechanism on the memory card door like the Olympus TG-820. If you don't need a camera that is quite this tough, you can save yourself money by opting for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS20 ($179.99, 3.5 stars)—that camera can only go 16 feet underwater, and doesn't have the nice flourishes found on the PowerShot D20, but is almost half the cost.

Performance and Conclusions

The D20 is no slouch when it comes to performance, but it isn't the fastest tough camera we've tested. It starts and shoots in 1.4 seconds, can fire off a photo every half second, and records a 0.2-second shutter lag. The Olympus TG-1 iHS starts in 1 second, delivers a fast 0.2-second recycle time and records a 0.2-second shutter lag.

I used Imatest to see just how sharp the D20's len is. It scored 1,961 lines per picture height, which is a bit better than the 1,800 lines required for a sharp image. It isn't the absolute best we've tested, but should hold its own against the Nikon AW100, which scored 2,166 lines, as long as you're not cropping too aggressively or making extremely large prints.

In terms of image noise, the D20 can capture photos with less than 1.5 percent through ISO 800. This isn't that shabby at all—especially when you see the level of detail present in photos at this setting. There is a little bit of detail lost at this setting when compared to the lowest ISO 100 setting, but the camera is still very usable. Photos are noisier at ISO 1600 and 3200, but they retain a surprising amount of detail at these settings. Compare this to the Pentax WG-2, which tests below 1.5 percent at ISO 1600 but does so at the cost of image sharpness and detail.

Video is recorded in QuickTime format at 1080p24 or 720p30. The quality is excellent for a point-and-shoot, but more adventuresome shooters may feel limited by the frame rate of the 1080p24 video. If video is important, the Olympus Tough TG-1 can capture 1080p60 video. The D20 has standard mini USB and mini HDMI ports, and can use SD, SDHC, and SDXC memory cards.

If you're looking for a rugged camera the Canon PowerShot D20 is a solid choice. It has a sharp lens, produces good images in difficult lighting, and has a GPS. If you don't need a GPS, the Olympus Tough TG-820 costs $50 less, has a fantastic rear display, and supports faster shooting. Our Editors' Choice Olympus Tough TG-1 iHS is a little more expensive at $400, but has a fast f/2 lens and performs admirably. The Nikon AW100, which was a previous Editors' Choice winner, is also a very capable camera. If you don't need a camera that is quite this rugged, consider the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS20 —it can't go as deep underwater and doesn’t have a stellar rear display, but will only set you back $180.

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