Best Rating Fujifilm FinePix XP10 Digital Camera – Black (12MP, 5x Optical Zoom) 2.7 inch LCD – Review & Rating
List Price: £149.99
24
Jan 2012
UK Low Price Fujifilm FinePix XP10 Digital Camera – Black (12MP, 5x Optical Zoom) 2.7 inch LCD Best Price
Good for taking to your local beach, swimming pool, desert, pond, arctic circle, war zone etc…,
OK, I recently got this Fuji XP10 camera for places I’d rather not take my dSLR and expensive compact to, like when things get wet or majorly dusty I’m in fear of an accident besetting my dSLR. So I was looking for a cheap camera that I don’t mind too much if it got damaged. I’d already got my 6 year old son the Fuji Z33 last years waterproof compact camera offering, and was secretly impressed with that model. So when I decided to look for a cheap compact for me that I could confidently take to the local lakes (I do a bit of wading with the dog) I re-evaluated the waterproof cameras on the market.
I wanted:
Something small.
Sensibly priced.
Waterproof enough to survive a dunk in shallow water with no requirement for a separate waterproof housing. (If it goes any deeper, I’m not going to be diving in after it!)
Easy to use.
Keep out any dust from beach excursions.
Use SD & SDHC cards. (I’ve got loads of SD cards from my other cameras, so didn’t want to have to buy into a different format)
The main players for waterproof cameras as I saw it are currently:
Olympus Mju TOUGH 6010 Digital Compact Camera – Titanium Grey (12MP, 3.6x Wide Digital Zoom) 2.7 inch LCD. Olympus don’t use SD cards, so not really a contender for me.
Panasonic Lumix FT1 Tough Digital Camera – Silver (12.1MP, 4.6x Optical Zoom) 2.7 inch LCD This ticks most of the boxes, but its a bit pricey and from the Amazon reviews seems to have questionable waterproofness.
Pentax Optio WS80 Waterproof Digital Camera – Black/Orange (10MP, 5 x Optical Zoom) 2.7 inch ScreenThis again fits the bill, but has users complaining about poor quality images.
Canon PowerShot D10 Digital Camera (12.1 MP, 3.0x Optical Zoom) 2.5″ LCD Expensive for what I want, and again seems to have hints that its not as waterproof as it should be.
Fuji: theres this model and the Z33. Both Fuji models tick all the boxes, but the XP10 has a longer zoom. Having owned a couple of Fuji cameras before I had confidence in picking the XP10
In the box you get:
The camera obviously.
Wrist strap.
The battery, strangely enough this is the same battery as used in the Fuji Z33, and my wifes Olympus Mju5000.
Battery charger, (requires battery to be removed prior to charging).
USB cable.
CD
Manuals.
About the camera:
The key selling points for this camera is its case, it offers: water proof down to 3m, shock/drop proof down to 1m, freeze proof down to -10 degrees C, and dust proof. The case has a reassuringly solid feel to it, it uses a rubber membrane over the control buttons on the back (this takes a bit of getting used to when pressing, but its worth it). All the openings like the battery/memory door also use rubber seals to keep out water and dust. The Lens is a 5x optical zoom and comes with a protective housing. Its worth noting that the AF and zoom makes a bit of noise (slight clicking/ticking noise) but this is nothing to worry about, I’ve read the same thing in a few other reviews, but the noise emitted is very slight.
Its also got a 12 MPix sensor, as you probably know, when printing at A4 anything over 5 Mpix won’t be noticeable but its nice to have more pixels none the less. The Video can be made to run at HD frame sizes (I’ve yet to own a compact camera that I’ve ever used the video facility on so I can’t really comment on this part){I’VE ADDED A COUPLE OF NOTES ABOUT VIDEO QUALITY AT THE END OF THIS REVIEW}. Other than this there is face detection, digital image stabilisation, the usual selection of shooting modes (sports, landscape, night, portrait, and auto etc.) macro, flash with red eye reduction and forced flash. To be blunt this is a simple camera with everything you do need, and nothing you don’t.
So if Fuji are producing a waterproof camera at a low price (I just paid £129 for mine) then obviously they will be making a few cuts on the spec. So what have they cut back on?
The special case on this camera itself will always make the camera something of a compromise. Like it or not, If you add a major feature to a camera like a waterproof case, it will mean one of two possible outcomes: 1) the price goes up, or 2) something drops features wise to keep the price the same. Firstly, the AF system seems a bit slow, but not unsuitably so, kind of like the speed you’d get on a mid range compact camera 5-8 years ago. If its fast quick shooting you are looking for, like snaps of your toddler running round on a sugar rush, then you’ll need to be ready. With…
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|regret,
We purchased the product just before we went on our holiday to the Maldives,after reading product reviews we finally decided on the fuji. We took the camera into the water and took some pictures and a video,all was looking good and we were really pleased on the quality of the pictures. After using the camera we rinsed it out in clean tap water so as to remove any salt. The next day we noticed the paint started lifting which was worrying as neither of us had dropped or banged the camera. We then got problem after problem,the rubber started swelling,functions wouldn’t work and finally wouldn’t switch on,it lasted a very poor 4 days ! It’s not everyday you get to swim with sharks and the fact that we couldn’t take photo’s for our memory’s is so upsetting..a holiday of a lifetime with no pictures is heartbreaking ! I’ve been on the internet since we’ve been back and it seems it’s not just us with these problems. If i could give anybody any advice it would be PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT! We ignored some reviews that said similar to this thinking they were just unlucky,well we certainly paid the price!! I’ve returned my camera and i will be expecting a full refund !!!
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|Impressed so far,
A neat little camera at a good price if the resilience features turn out to be as claimed. It’s early days, but it is certainly a convenient size, seems to be packed with features, and I am happy with results so far. My niggles are:
1) Supplied manual is almost worthless – you need to checkout the CD based manual for anything other than very basic info.
2) The manual says the charger light will go out when fully charged although the hard copy does not state how long this might take. Actually, it never went out – it changed from amber to green but I did not notice this subtlety and probably charged the battery for way too long.
3) The CD manual says that the waterproofing materials should be replaced annually (at cost) to maintain water resistance. I don’t know how large the yearly bill for that might be.
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