Fujifilm FinePix XP200
Pros
- Waterproof down to 50 ft
- Very rugged design
- Option to shoot HDR photos
- Full HD (1080p) video recording at 60 fps
- Low price
Cons
- Image quality is decent, but less then most competing models
- Not good in low light
- Video quality is sub par
- No GPS
- Limited manual settings
If you’re looking for a good waterproof camera to take with you on your next snorkelling / scuba diving trip, the Fujifilm FinePix XP200 is definitely a camera worth to consider. The Fujifilm FinePix XP200 is Fujifilm’s main waterproof / rugged camera model. It’s a nice camera at first look, it has a real rugged design and looks like it can take a beating. Let’s have a further look at this waterproof digital camera, and ‘dive’ into the specs:
Image Quality
Overall the image quality of the FinePix XP200 is decent, but less then some of its competitors. Colour reproduction is excellent, colours appear very vibrant. Detail in the images appears to be quite low, however. Noise is barely visible in low ISO settings (100 and 200), but on from ISO 400, noise becomes clearly visible in darker areas of the picture (increasing as you increase the ISO number). The automatic noise reduction setting will smooth out this noise, but this will mean you’ll loose detail in some areas of the picture. Also, despite the built in optical image stabiliser, the camera doesn’t take very sharp pictures in dark situations. Images shot at night appear very blurry, unless you keep the camera absolutely still (using a tripod or placing it on a flat surface).
- • Sensor type & size: the camera contains a 1 / 2.33 inch CMOS sensor, a standard sensor type / size for this range of cameras.
- • Lens type: the camera contains a lens view angle of 28mm-140mm, this is slightly higher than it’s main competitors like the Lumix DMC-TS5. The minimum focus distance is 3.5 inch / 9cm, which is also a little more then its main competitors. This means you can’t come really close to your subject, so it’s less suited for taking macro shots. A plus is that the lens also offers optical image stabilisation, making it easier to shoot steady pictures and video.
- • Optical zoom: The lens offers an optical zoom range of 5x, which is enough in most situations.
- • Digital zoom: The camera offers an additional ‘intelligent digital zoom’ of 2x, combining this with the optical zoom, the range is extended to 10x. When putting the digital zoom to its max, your pictures will become less sharp though.
- • Resolution (megapixels): 16 Megapixels
- • Maximum ISO: the maximum ISO setting of this camera is 6400. As with most cameras in this class, noise and grain will become visible when putting the ISO to its max. It’s best to avoid ISO settings 3200 an 6400.
- • Shutter Speed: You can also control the shutter speed on this camera. Minimum setting is 1/2000 sec and maximum is 4 sec. A maximum setting of 4 seconds is too short for extended nighttime photography. This means you can’t use it in very low light situations, combined with a tripod (for instance for shooting starry skies or fireworks). But of course that’s not the general purpose of this camera.
- • Flash: The camera has intelligent flash, meaning it will adjust the brightness to the amount of ambient light. This will make sure your pictures are never over exposed when using flash. The camera also has a built in red eye removal function, which works pretty well.
Ruggedness
The ruggedness of this camera is excellent. It is waterproof up to 50 feet, which places it in the top end when compared to its main competitors. Furthermore it is freeze proof to 14°F (-10°C) and can withstand drops from 6.6 feet / 2 meters. The camera is constructed out of shock absorbing material, a large part of its body is made out of rubber. The battery and memory card compartment is protected with a double locked seal. The Fujifilm FinePix XP200 not specifically rated as being crushproof, but other reviewers have tested it on this area and say it can endure a lot of pressure as well. For example, running it over with a bike is no problem:
- • Waterproof Depth: 50 feet / 13 meters (147 feet / 45 meters with separate sold housing)
- • Coldproof: 14°F or -10°C
- • Shockproof: 6.6 feet / 2 meters.
- • Crushproof: yes, but not rated in detail
Features
Looking at the list of features this camera packs, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS5 doesn’t have quite as impressive features as its main rivals in this class. It lacks manual control settings as well as GPS (which almost all of its competitors do have). It does offer wifi and the option to shoot HDRs.
- • Video functionality: Video recording is possible, but the quality is far from superb. If you have enough light, the image quality is reasonable. But if your shooting video in low or medium light situations, you’re going to see a lot of noise and artifacting. The maximum resolution for filming is 1080p (Full HD), with a maximum frame rate of 60 frames per seconds. When shooting at lower resolutions you can even go up to 120 fps (640×480) or 360 fps (224×168). This allows you to play around with slow motion effects, as shown in this sample video:
- • GPS: The camera doesn’t have GPS functionality.
- • Wifi: The camera is wifi enabled, allowing you to transfer images direct to your smartphone using an iOS or Android app.
- • Filters: The FinePix XP200 offers a lot of different filters to apply to your pictures directly. There are filter settings like ‘miniature’, ‘high key’, ‘partial color’ and ‘soft focus’. Nice to have, but of course these types of effects can also easily be done in photo editing software.
- • Shooting modes: The camera offers a range of shooting modes. It has 14 scene modes a macro mode and a panorama mode. However, it lacks a real manual mode where you can set every setting yourself. It also doesn’t have aperture or shutter speed priority modes.
- • HDR functionality: perhaps the coolest feature is the option to shoot HDR (Hight Dynamic Range) pictures. This is a photo technique where 3 or more photos of the same subject, all with different exposures, are merged together. This creates a photo where foreground and background are evenly exposed. Normally this effect can only be achieved by DSLR cameras and photo editing afterwards, so it’s nice to see it encapsulated in this small point and shoot camera.
Handling / ease of use
In generals the Fujifilm FinePix XP200 is pretty easy to handle.
- • Controls / interface: The XP200 has plenty of buttons to directly change a lot of most used settings (like exposure, flash and drve mode). It also has a button dedicated to the video function. If you do need to enter the menu, you’ll see that it’s pretty easy to navigate around. The menu is divideded into a shooting and a setup menu.
- • Button responsiveness: Button clicking is no problem, they give enough feedback when you click them. The buttons are big enough to be handled with (tight) gloves around your hands.
- • Speed / Shutter lag: The shutter response of this camera is very good, it’s only 0,05 seconds. The average time between taking two shots is only 1,2 second (without flash). The time it takes from switching on to taking the first shot is 1.7 seconds.
- • Automatic shooting mode: There’s a pretty decent automatic shooting mode on the XP200, that offers good quality pictures in most situations. However in night shots, the automatic mode will often make your images noisy and unsharp.
- • Battery life: Battery life of this camera is around 300 shots per charge. This is pretty average compared to other models in its class. If you use the wifi functionality a lot, the battery life will decrease (as wifi needs a lot of power).
- • Storage: Internal memory is 39 MB. The camera can be equipped with SD, SDXC and SDHC external memory cards, providing storage capacities up to 2 Terabytes.
Design
The camera looks and feels really solid. It’s available in 4 colours (yellow, blue, red and black). We like the yellow color best. Why? probably because of it immediately recalls the look of a submarine. The body is partly plastic / rubber and partly metal, vital parts like the lens are perfectly covered with though glass. A nice design feature: the bottom of the camera is flat, so you place it on any vertical flat surface to stabilise it or take self-timed pictures.
The camera looks and feels really solid. It’s available in 4 colours (yellow, blue, red and black). We like the yellow color best. Why? probably because of it immediately recalls the look of a submarine. The body is partly plastic / rubber and partly metal, vital parts like the lens are perfectly covered with though glass. A nice design feature: the bottom of the camera is flat, so you place it on any vertical flat surface to stabilise it or take self-timed pictures.
- • Size / dimensions: 4.6i x 2.8 x 1.2 inch / 116.1x 71.4 x 30.3 mm
- • Weight: 8.2 ounces / 232g
- • Screen size: 3 inch 920k dots. The screen bright and has enough detail. Only in really bright sunlight, the screen gets some visibility issues.
- • Floatation: The camera doesn’t float, unless a separate float strap is purchased.
Pricing
The Fujifilm FinePix XP200 is priced a little lower then its competitors, but its overall quality is also a little less. Prices range from $205 to $250 dollar. At this moment, the cheapest supplier is amazon.com, check out the current price here.
