Fujifilm FinePix XP10 Review

June 25, 2010 | Mark Goldstein | Rating star Rating star Rating star Rating star

Introduction

The Fujifilm FinePix XP10 is a new all-action digital camera. Replacing the Z33WP model, the FinePix XP10 is waterproof up to 10 feet / 3m, shockproof up to 3 feet / 1m, freezeproof down to 14°F / -10°, and dustproof. The Fujifilm XP10 has a 12 megapixel CCD sensor, 2.7 inch LCD screen, 5x periscopic optical zoom lens with a reinforced protective lens barrier, and measures just 21.7 mm thick. It also features 720p HD movie recording and an automatic Facebook / YouTube Automatic Web Upload function. Available in a choice of three different colors, silver, black and green, the Fujifilm FinePix XP10 costs £169.99 / $199.95.

Ease of Use

The Fujifilm FinePix XP10 is a pleasingly compact digital camera, with a youthful two-tone dark and light blue plastic body that's shaped like a lozenge, becoming narrower in height on the left-hand side. To remind you why you bought the camera, the words "Water / Shock / Dust / Freeze Proof" are highlighted on the front of the alongside the rather prominent XP branding. The XP10 is a diminutive camera that's easily small enough to fit into the palm of your hand, measuring just 95.6 (W) x 63.8 (H) x 23.2 (D) mm. The XP10 is quite slim for this class of camera, making it well suited to either a trouser or shirt pocket or handbag, and it weighs just 135g without the battery or memory card fitted.

The Fujifilm FinePix XP10 features an internal non-extending 5x optical zoom lens that's equivalent to a focal length of 36-180mm in 35mm terms, offering a long telephoto length that makes it ideal for candid head and shoulder portraits. The 36mm wide-angle setting isn't that wide by modern standards though , often making me wish for a 28mm or even wider setting. The maximum aperture is a rather slow f/4 at the wide end but a more respectable f/4.8 at the other extreme of the zoom range. For those with kids or subjects that don't stay put the XP10's auto-focus tracking ability will doubtless come in handy.

Despite its all-plastic construction, the XP10 is one of the better models around in terms of build quality. The overall finish is good, looking and feeling more expensive than its price-tag might suggest. The only minor criticisms are the rather ineffective handgrip on the front, making the camera more difficult to hold than it really should be, and the poorly located plastic tripod mount and the cheap plastic battery compartment latch, which are strangely out of keeping with the rest of the camera.

Although we can't entirely vouch for the Fujifilm FinePix XP10's ability to survive extreme depths, it did handle our more down-to-earth tests with aplomb. Submerging it in a sink full of cold water and burying it in a pile of sand didn't cause any undue harm, and we also didn't notice any unwanted dust in our pictures, not that this is usually a problem for compact cameras with non-interchangeable lenses. Dropping it from within the specified height left the camera intact, albeit with a few cosmetic scratches, and it also survived a night left in the freezer compartment. All in all we're confident that the XP10 would handle most things that you or your family could throw at it, or throw it at.

Fujifilm FinePix XP10 Fujifilm FinePix XP10
Front Rear

Given the telephoto lens reach of 180mm, image stabilisation is a welcome inclusion, albeit a less effective digital system which increases the ISO speed rather than the more advanced CCD-shift anti shake found on other models in Fujifilm's extensive range. In practice therefore with the Fujifilm FinePix XP10 it's mostly a case of a half press of the shutter release button and the camera does the rest, particularly with Fujifilm including an 'auto everything' scene recognition (SR) auto mode. Although far from infallible - if you're not paying close attention and it's presented with a busy scene it'll call up landscape when macro is needed and vice versa - it adds to the beginner-friendly feel.

The Fujifilm FinePix XP10 has relatively few external controls, just 8 in total, which reflects the fact that this is a simple camera in functionality terms, with very limited photographic control on offer. All the controls are clearly labeled using industry-standard symbols and terminology. Located on top of the XP10 are the tiny Microphone holes, On / Off button and the tactile Shutter button. On the bottom are the plastic tripod mount, unhelpfully located in the extreme left-hand corner, and the battery compartment, which also houses the SD memory card slot and the PC / AV Out port. The latter accepts both the USB interface cable required to connect the camera to a printer or computer and the AV cable.

On the rear of the XP10 is the 2.7 inch, 230k-dot LCD screen, with a number of controls to the right, including a traditional navigation pad. You can directly access the various flash options by clicking right on the navigation pad, the self-timer modes via down, the focus modes via left, and exposure compensation and delete via up. The Menu / OK button in the middle performs two main tasks - it opens the intuitive Main Menu system and then selects the menu options. Press this button in anything but auto mode and you're presented with two clearly read screens of shooting options when in capture mode or review mode (if shooting using one of the auto settings, options are abbreviated to turning self timer or high speed shooting on or off, plus access to the set up menu). The set up menu itself is divided into three folders allowing the adjustment of operational volumes, screen brightness, and the ability to format the inserted memory card or internal memory.

The Shooting Mode menu option provides a list of all the various modes. Starting with Program, the shooting mode with the largest amount of configurable options and then full auto mode, we then come to one of the camera's main selling points, the aforementioned SR (Scene Recognition) auto, which cleverly chooses the most applicable scene mode 80% of the time.

Fujifilm FinePix XP10 Fujifilm FinePix XP10
Front Front

Next up are two modes for improving low-light photos. The Natural Light mode forces the XP10 to select a fast shutter speed in order to freeze subject movement more effectively, whilst setting a fast ISO speed without firing the flash for more natural results. It's an effective automatic way of taking photos of children indoors, for example. Natural Light and Flash is a little more exciting. When selected, the camera instantly takes 2 photos, one with flash, one without, giving you the option of which one to choose later (both are saved by the camera).

Finally an extensive range of scene modes feature standard pre-optimised settings for familiar scenes and subjects, including portraits, landscapes, sunsets and fireworks amongst its selection. Face detection, which biases the focus and exposure toward any faces in the frame, is activated in the main menu system, as is the Red Eye Removal setting.

Above the navigation pad, the XP10 uses thumb-operated buttons for zooming in and out, marked W and T, a sensible choice given the intended use of the camera, although the buttons are coated with a protective rubber which makes them a little unresponsive. The camera takes just under four seconds to move through the range from maximum wideangle to telephoto, and full resolution JPEG images are saved almost instantaneously when shooting in single shot mode.

Fujifilm FinePix XP10 Fujifilm FinePix XP10
Memory Card Slot Battery Compartment

Directly below the navigation pad are the self-explanatory Playback and Display /Back buttons, the latter cycling through the various LCD display settings, turning off the visible icons on screen and/or calling up a nine zone compositional grid when in capture mode,, plus a very handy Movie button which makes it easy to instantly start recording moving footage, with all three also covered in the same protective rubber.

The XP10 captures 1280 x 720 pixel footage at 30fps with mono sound, with full use of the 5x zoom and a maximum recording time of 15 minutes per clip. Alternatively there are also 640 x 480 pixels and 320 x 240 pixels modes, also at 30 fps. Although there's no built-in HDMI port, you could use Fujifilm's optional HD Player Kit instead, which includes an HD card reader that connects the camera to your HDTV, and even a wireless remote control. The in-camera Movie Edit function allows you to make your movies black and white, sepia or even add backlight correction to correct the exposure.

Fujifilm have chosen the more widely available SD than retaining historical loyalty to the now outgunned (in terms of available capacity) xD-Picture Card, a slot for which is provided at the base of the camera where it's shared with the lithium-ion battery required for power. This means that if you're shooting with the camera on a tripod via the plastic mount, you have to first remove the camera to remove the card, which is a bit of a pain but far from uncommon. The right hand flank of the XP10 (when viewed from the back) features a a metal eyelet for attaching the provided wrist strap, and on the left side is the speaker and a rather incongruous plastic flap which covers a strange port that's described as "not for customer use" in the manual.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 5.75Mb.

The Fujifilm FinePix XP10 produced images of average quality during the review period. This camera handled noise quite well, not becoming obvious until ISO 400 and then becoming progressively worse at the faster settings of ISO 800 and 1600. Chromatic aberrations were quite well controlled, with purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 12 megapixel images were slightly soft out of the camera at the default sharpen setting and ideally require further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop. Macro performance is below average, only allowing you to focus as close as 9cms away from the subject when the lens is set to wide-angle. Barrel distortion is clearly evident at the 36mm focal length, and the built-in flash is rather under-powered, although at least there was no sign of red-eye. The maximum shutter speed of 4 seconds is disappointing, as it doesn't allow the camera to capture enough light for many after-dark situations.

Noise

There are 5 ISO settings available on the Fujifilm FinePix XP10. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

 
 

Focal Range

The Fujifilm FinePix XP10's 5x zoom lens provides a focal length of 36-180mm in 35mm terms, as demonstrated below.

36mm

180mm

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little bit soft at the default sharpening setting, and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop.

Original (100% Crop)

Sharpened (100% Crop)

   

Chromatic Aberrations

The Fujifilm FinePix XP10 handled chromatic aberrations fairly well during the review. Some purple fringing was present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)

Example 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Fujifilm FinePix XP10 offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 9cms away from the camera. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject in Macro mode (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot

100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Fujifilm FinePix XP10 are Auto, Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro, Red-eye Reduction & Slow Synchro. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (36mm)

Flash On - Wide Angle (36mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64
   

Flash Off - Telephoto (180mm)

Flash On - Telephoto (180mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64

And here are some portrait shots. Neither the Auto or Red-eye reduction mode caused any amount of red-eye.

Flash On

Flash On (100% Crop)
   

Red Eye Reduction

Red Eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Fujifilm FinePix XP10's maximum shutter speed is 4 seconds, which is not great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 4 seconds at ISO 200.

Night Shot

Night Shot (100% Crop)

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Fujifilm FinePix XP10 camera, which were all taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

This is a sample movie at the highest quality setting of 1280x720 pixels at 30 frames per second. Please note that this 13 second movie is 36.5Mb in size.

Product Images

Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Front of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Isometric View

 
Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Isometric View

 
Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Rear of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

 
Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

 
Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

 
Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Top of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Bottom of the Camera

 

Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Side of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Side of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Front of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Front of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Memory Card Slot

 
Fujifilm FinePix Xp10

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

It may not have the most bells and whistles or take the greatest pictures in the world, but the Fujifilm XP10 is still a compellingly easy-to-use and cost-effective compact camera that should survive the rough and tumble of family life.

The XP10 is firmly aimed at the family sector of the photographic market with a range of snazzy colours, neat non-extending lens and solid build quality given its budget price tag. It's also easy enough to use for every family member from youngest to oldest, with a range of scene mode and the clever Automatic Scene Recognition mode doing virtually all of the work for you. And it should survive more than a few adventures too, making the XP10 a perfect camera for use in more extreme environments.

The merely average image quality is something of a disappointment, with noise and softening of detail all too apparent at ISO 400, obvious barrel distortion at the 36mm focal length, a poor macro mode and limiting maximum shutter speed of 4 seconds. You probably won't notice any of these flaws if you mostly take photos in good light - just don't try to push the XP10 too far and you'll be satisfied, if not delighted, with what this camera can achieve. 720p HD video with full use of the 5x zoom lens partly makes-up for the less than stellar still images..

As with most of Fujifilm's 2010 camera range, the XP10 is certainly competitively priced at £169.99 / $199.95, much cheaper than competitor's all-action offerings and a veritable bargain for a camera that should outlive most other compacts. Despite the so-so still images, it's still easy to recommend the Fujifilm XP10 as an easy-to-use and versatile camera for all the family.

4 stars

Ratings (out of 5)
Design 4
Features 4
Ease-of-use 4.5
Image quality 3
Value for money 4.5

Specifications

Model

FinePix XP10 / XP11

Number of effective pixels *1

12.2 megapixels

CCD sensor

1/2.3-inch CCD

Storage media
  • Internal memory (Approx. 13MB)
  • SD memory card
  • SDHC memory card*2
File format
Still image:

JPEG (Exif Ver. 2.2*3)

Movie:

AVI (Motion JPEG)

Audio:

WAVE format, Monaural sound

(Design rule for Camera File system compliant / DPOF-compatible)

Number of recorded pixels

Still image: 4,000 x 3,000 (12M) / 3,984 x 2,656 (10M, 3:2) / 4,000 x 2,248 (9M, 16:9) / 2,816 x 2,112 (6M) / 2,048 x 1536 (3M) / 1,920 x 1,080 (2M, 16:9) / 1,600 x 1,200 (2M) / 640 x 480 (0.3M)

Lens

Fujinon 5x optical zoom lens, F4.0 (Wide) - F4.8 (Telephoto)

Lens focal length

f=6.4 - 32.0mm, equivalent to 36.0 - 180.0mm on a 35mm camera

Digital zoom

Approx. 6.3x

Aperture

Wide: F4.0 / F6.7, Telephoto: F4.8 / F8.0

Focus distance
(from lens surface)
Normal:
  • Wide: Approx. 60cm / 2.0ft. to infinity
  • Telephoto: Approx. 1.0m / 3.3ft. to infinity
Macro:
  • Wide: Approx. 9cm - 80cm / 3.5in. - 2.6ft.
  • Telephoto: Approx. 1.0m - 3.0m / 3.3ft. - 9.8ft.
Sensitivity

Auto / Equivalent to ISO 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600 (Standard Output Sensitivity)

Exposure control

TTL 256-zones metering

Exposure mode

Programmed AE

Shooting modes

Natural Light, Natural Light & with Flash, Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night, Beach, Snow, Sunset, Party, Museum, Flower, Text, Digital Image Stabilization, Auction, Successive Movie, SR AUTO (Scene Recognition Auto), Auto, Program, Night (Tripod), Portrait enhancer, Under water

Image stabilizer

Digital Image Stabilization

Shutter speed

1/4sec. to 1/2000sec., (with mechanical shutter)

Focus

Auto focus, TTL contrast AF, Tracking AF

White balance

Auto, Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light

Self-timer

Approx. 10sec. / 2sec. delay, Couple Timer, Group Timer

Flash

Auto flash
Effective range (ISO AUTO):

Normal:
  • Wide: Approx. 70cm - 3.1m / 2.3ft. - 10.2ft.
  • Telephoto: Approx. 70cm - 2.7m / 2.3ft. - 8.9ft.
Macro:
  • Approx. 30cm - 80cm / 1.0ft. - 2.6ft.

Flash modes
Auto, Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro, Red-eye Reduction & Slow Synchro.

LCD monitor

2.7-inch, Approx. 230,000 dots, TFT color LCD monitor; frame coverage approx. 96%

Movie recording

1,280 x 720 pixels / 640 x 480 pixels / 320 x 240 pixels (30 frames/sec.) with monaural sound
*Optical zoom function can be selectable during movie recording.

Photography functions

SR AUTO (Scene Recognition Auto), Face Detection (with Auto Red-eye reduction, on, off), Framing guide, Frame No. memory, Silent mode, FinePix color

Playback functions

Face Detection, EDIT FOR BLOG, Image Search, Crop, Image rotate, Slideshow, Multi-frame playback (2/5/9/100 frames), Sorting by date, Voice Memo, Movie Edit, Mark Upload

Video output

NTSC / PAL selectable

Digital interface

USB 2.0 High-speed

Power supply

NP-45A Li-ion battery (included)*4

Dimensions

95.6 (W) x 63.8 (H) x 23.2 (D) mm / 3.8 (W) x 2.5 (H) x 0.9 (D) in. (excluding accessories and attachments)

Weight

Approx. 135g / 4.8oz.
(excluding accessories, battery and memory card)

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