Fujifilm FinePix XP60 Review

February 28, 2013 | Matt Grayson | Rating star Rating star Rating star Rating star

Introduction

The Fujifilm FinePix XP60 is a small and slim digital compact camera. As well as a line-up of popular features such as a 16 megapixel CMOS sensor, Full HD video, SDXC card compatibility and anti-reflective screen, the XP60 is waterproof, shock-proof, dust-proof and freeze-proof. This makes it one tough cookie. Will it survive our rigorous test and come out smelling of roses? The Fujifilm FinePix XP60 costs around £179 / $199 and is available in blue, red, black, yellow and green.

Ease of Use

Upon opening the box, you're faced with the basic user guide for the Fujifilm FinePix XP60 which is a fold-out guide with cartoon images showing you how to load the battery and fit the wrist strap. There's also a safety handbook informing you about the water resistance of the camera and essentially advising you not to lose it down the Mariana Trench. Along with this paperwork, the camera is supplied with a CD which holds the full manual in a variety of languages and FinePix Studio viewing software version 2.4.

Scrabble beneath these and you get to the rest of the stuff included in the box. Aside from the camera, there's a wrist strap, charging plug and USB cable. The cable acts as a means to get pictures onto your computer and as a charging cable. It plugs into the charging plug and into the camera. The great news is you can charge off your – or any – computer computer, too. There's also an NP-45a lithium ion battery that Fujifilm says has a life of around 200 shots as long as the camera is kept in Auto mode. That will likely also include not looking at the screen to review pictures you've taken so in reality, this will be a smaller number.

Fujifilm FinePix XP60 Fujifilm FinePix XP60
Front Rear

The design of the XP60 is typical of Fujifilm waterproof cameras and other manufacturers too. There seems to be this need to make the camera look as though it's covered in armour as well as giving it the appearance of being designed like a submarine by placing rivets on the front of the camera. We described it as slim and it is, although it's certainly been padded out to make it shock-proof. It can still be fitted into a pocket, but it needs to have that extra protection.

Speaking of protection, the Fujifilm FinePix XP60 has been improved slightly against the XP50 which – we assume – is a replacement, but is most likely a step up in the range. After all, it's not just the 6m waterproofing that's better than the XP50's 5m. The resolution is a slightly higher 16 megapixel compared to 14 megapixel on the XP50. Is that necessary though? Well it's negligible in terms of viewing the pictures. You may see a difference in the maximum size you can print to. The XP50 has a FSI-CMOS sensor as do the other Outdoor range of cameras. It's not specified on the XP60 specifications, so we can only assume that the sensor is also Front Side Illuminated. We'd normally go on the fact that a BSI sensor is newer technology and therefore shouted about. It's interesting that Fujifilm have labelled their sensors as FSI, given that all standard sensors are FSI.

Fujifilm FinePix XP60 Fujifilm FinePix XP60
Water-proof Front

Being part of the Outdoor range, the Fujifilm FinePix XP60 boasts resistance to a number of problems that would normally wreck a digital compact camera. As well as the waterproofing to 6m (20ft) and shock-proofing to 1.5m (5ft or around mid-chest high on an average adult), the XP60 is also freeze-proof to -10ºC (14ºF) and dust-proof thanks to the same resistance that keeps water at bay. These features along with other USP's reinforces the camera as a companion for the traveller. Because when you add the protection to the built-in charger, fuel efficient CMOS sensor, SDXC memory card and anti-reflective coating on the LCD screen, It looks like it could handle any situation.

Build quality is exceptional. Let's face it, if it's not built to a high degree then it's Sod's Law that it will fail when you're scuba diving around MV Keith Tibbetts off the coast of Grand Cayman. The quality of the lens will be seen in during the test shots but we always wonder about the quality of the glass that sits in front of the lens to keep the water out. It will be multi coated to reduce flare and ghosting but what about chromatic aberrations or light dispersion? Arguably, it will be negligible and putting it into context, will the buyer of a camera at this price really care?

Despite being designed for underwater photography, the buttons are surprisingly small. They're bigger than you'd expect on a normal digital compact camera, but small for one that's to be used underwater – possibly with gloves. They feel firm and press in with a definite action so you can tell it's done even while not looking at it or if you were underwater.

Fujifilm FinePix XP60 Fujifilm FinePix XP60
Lockable Cover Weather-sealed Cover

The flash has been placed nearer the centre of the Fujifilm FinePix XP60 due to taking macro or marine photographs. The light will be more even for that type of photography but portraits could suffer from red-eye.

All the openings on the camera have been placed on one side of the camera which is covered with a watertight covering that umbrellas the whole side of the camera. The clasp is a wheel that has to be turned 90º to open while holding down a button in the centre. It sounds long winded but prevents accidental opening of the cover which would ruin the camera completely.

The menu system is minimal on the XP60 which is likely to prevent confusion and speed up using the camera when under water or in extreme cold. The Main menu is opened by pressing the centre button on the pad. There are two tabs for Shooting and Setup. The Shooting menu accesses the most used options such as resolution, ISO, white-balance and FinePix Colour while the Setup menu has more in-depth options such as date & time, language, format the card and operation volume. The menu is easy enough to see. The colours are bright and there's a good deal of contrast. Thanks will go to the anti-reflective screen for making it easier to see. Fujifilm could take the opportunity to play around with the menu system making graphics bigger – or even taking over from text completely.

Fujifilm FinePix XP60 Fujifilm FinePix XP60
Memory Card Slot Battery Compartment

From a cold start, the Fujifilm FinePix XP60 is great. We managed to switch the camera on, focus and take a picture in just over 1.6 seconds. Nearly a second faster than standard digital compact cameras. There are a number of continuous modes on the XP60. They're in the Main menu and there's four continuous modes and two Final modes. The Final modes will start taking pictures when you start holding the button down but it will only save the last few once you bring the button back up. The continuous modes get progressively faster and are burst types firing a quick succession of images instead of plodding at a reasonable rate. 

As with the Main menu, Fujifilm haven't messed with the playback system. It works the same way showing images full size with basic information on the screen. This can be rotated through various options to remove it if necessary or only show images tagged as favourites. The Playback menu has the usual additions that Fujifilm put in recently such as the Photobook Assist and Image search. There's also some basic editing options to adjust brightness, contrast, colour and sepia. Video and pictures can be marked for upload to YouTube, Facebook and/or MyFinePix.com. Should you take a picture and discover that red-eye was present and it wasn't seen before, it is possible to remove it in the Playback menu. You can also do all the standard stuff such as Protect, Crop, Resize and Rotate images.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 16 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 7Mb.

Noise

Low ISO images look a little bitty from mild noise which is a little annoying. However, looking at it from a more optimistic point of view, the fact that they've decided not to use noise reduction means the image is less tarnished and obviates the painted look that NR can create. Still, at ISO 100 we'd expect to have a smoother image even without NR sorting things out. Interestingly, moving into ISO 200 shows little or – arguably – no change in image quality despite a stop exposure difference. Small amounts of noise start to move into the darker areas of the frame at ISO 400, but in all fairness, it's only really noticeable at full magnification of the image.

The major changes start at ISO 800 which is pretty high for a compact. Normally we'd expect to see a big shift in image quality at ISO 400. Image quality begins to break down at ISO 800, though. Noise is a lot more noticeable and edge detail begins to break up while sharp edges start to fuzz out. This problem exacerbates through the next stage although viewed from a normal viewing distance, the image quality still looks great with no colour casts trying to take over the image.

There must have been an issue by ISO 3200 because the image is practically black & white. Most colour has been removed or desaturated in a bid to remove colour noise. This leaves only edge sharpness breaking down further and salt & pepper noise being an issue. Incredibly, the ISO 6400 image looks great. WE say this because a compact camera sensor at that ISO setting should have a horrid blue cast and be riddled with blue and green blobs of colour. It is bad on the highest ISO setting, but it's the best we've seen in a long time.

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

 
 

Focal Range

The focal range of the Fujifilm FinePix XP60 is 5mm – 25mm or 28-140mm in 35mm terms. That's a 5x optical zoom. We didn't see any barrel distortion that we felt we should be concerned with. In fact it was slightly lower than what we expected to see.

28mm

140mm

Sharpening

The Fujifilm FinePix XP60 doesn't have any built-in sharpening tools so if you wish to sharpen the images, you need to use an external editing suite such as Adobe Photoshop. We used the standard sharpen setting in our test using CS4. We found that because of the lack of noise control to smooth out images, sharpening simply made the roughness of the noise that was present even worse. Images appear to be sharp enough anyway.

Original (100% Crop)

Sharpened (100% Crop)

   

File quality

At full resolution on the fine setting, a typical image from the Fujifilm FinePix XP60 is around 7Mb while simply knocking it down to the normal setting drops the file size down to less than 4Mb.

14M Fine (7.35Mb) (100% Crop) 14M Normal (3.89Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

Chroma is handled well on the Fujifilm FinePix XP60. We did find traces of it, but it's only mild and at the extreme edges of the frame. It's entirely possible that the noise present on the images could be also breaking up the chroma, in a way, as it breaks up any clean lines.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

   

Chromatic Aberrations 3 (100% Crop)

 
 

Macro

Close focusing of the Fujifilm FinePix XP60 is 9cm in the macro mode. That's paltry compared to some cameras, but let's look at this from the point of view that this is a camera designed for underwater photography, not taking pictures of interesting lizards on a rock. It's highly unlikely you'll get close enough to any wildlife while scuba diving to get a picture of the lining of it's eye, so there's little point in having a good close focusing fitted.

Macro

Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash is situated more centrally on the Fujifilm FinePix XP60 than on a standard compact camera and this is to enable direct light with a reduction of shadows when photographing underwater. It does create vignettes, which is a shame. The vignettes do start to dissipate as the zoom is used.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (28mm)

Flash On - Wide Angle (28mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64
   

Flash Off - Telephoto (140mm)

Flash On - Telephoto (140mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64

Because of this central location, it's more square on to eyes when shooting portraits and red-eye is an issue because of this. The Red-eye reduction feature works well, but it would be worth running it through an editing suite as well.

Flash On

Flash On (100% Crop)
   

Red Eye Reduction

Red Eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

In Program mode, the night shot can't be taken because the Fujifilm FinePix XP60 won't take a long enough exposure. There are two night scenes: With Tripod or Without. Using the Without option will use a lower ISO to smooth the image. Despite taking our test image in the wee hours, we found that the image is still over exposed. On the other hand, the Program mode shot is drastically under exposed and also out of focus.

Night Auto

Night Auto (100% Crop)

   

Night Scene

Night Scene (100% Crop)

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Fujifilm FinePix XP60 camera, which were all taken using the 16 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 1920x1080 pixels at 30 frames per second. Please note that this 33 second movie is 57.8Mb in size.

Product Images

Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Front of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Front of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Front of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Front of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Front of the Camera / Isometric View

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Front of the Camera / Isometric View

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Rear of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Rear of the Camera / Filter Menu

 

Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Rear of the Camera / Battery Chamber Warning

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Top of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Bottom of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Side of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Side of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Front of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Memory Card Slot / Battery Compartment

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Memory Card Slot / Battery Compartment

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Memory Card Slot

 
Fujifilm FinePix XP60

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Fujifilm FinePix XP60 is a capable little camera. It seems that every thought has gone into how to make it as travel friendly as possible. Fujifilm have also squeezed as much tech into it as they can for the price they wanted to sell it at. The waterproof protection is better than most other digital compacts and matches them with the other areas. It looks nice - especially the electric blue colour that we got as a test sample. The layout of lens in the top corner has been tried and tested for around 10 years now. It means the camera will remain slim even while zooming and most importantly for an underwater camera, everything is sealed inside the body.

Other features suited to the travelling photographer are the built-in charger which is great for space strapped bags. Should you wish to reduce the amount of memory you take, the SDXC compatibility will allow larger capacities of card. However, this has dangers of losing a lot of photographs if the card corrupts or you lose the camera/card. The start up time and some of the burst modes are very fast which is great for candid street scenes. The anti-reflective screen will be great for snorkelling as well as taking pictures in bright light. This also reduces the amount of battery power drainage caused by brightening screens to counter glare.

We're unsure of the lack of noise control on the pictures. Noise is quite bad from the lowest ISO setting but doesn't seem to get much worse as the settings are raised. We think with a little NR, the image quality would increase greatly.

The price varies depending on retailer but for an average price of around £179, the Fujifilm FinePix XP60 is a good little camera. You get some decent features built in while any issues that surround it, such as the centrally located flash producing red-eye and having an awesome red-eye reduction feature. If you're looking to go on your travels and you want a little camera that has some decent features, the XP60 will suit your needs. While the image quality isn't the best due to the absent noise-reduction, it makes up for it in other areas.

4 stars

Ratings (out of 5)
Design 4
Features 4.5
Ease-of-use 4
Image quality 3.5
Value for money 4

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Fujifilm FinePix XP60 from around the web.

ephotozine.com »

The Fujifilm FinePix XP60 is this years update to the Fujifilm FinePix XP50, a budget waterproof camera. The new XP60 promises improved image quality, a 5x optical zoom lens, as well as a more rugged camera, being waterproof to 6m, shockproof from 1.5m, dust and sandproof, and freezeproof. Find out how it performs in our review.
Read the full review »

pocket-lint.com »

If there's one thing we can count on in this world it's that Fujifilm will release a new tough camera each year. The FinePix XP60 is the latest in an ongoing line of waterproof point-and-shoot cameras, adding a yet higher-resolution 16-megapixel sensor to the hardened series. Is it enough to make it swim, or does the added resolution weigh this model down and sink the ship? - See more at: http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/6152/fujifilm-finepix-xp60-tough-waterproof-compact-camera-review#sthash.hePQMr57.dpuf
Read the full review »

Specifications

Model FinePix XP60
Effective Pixels 16.4 million pixels
Sensor type 1/2.3-inch CMOS with primary colour filter
Storage media
  • Internal memory (approx. 95MB)
  • SD / SDHC / SDXC memory card *2
File format
still image
JPEG (Exif Ver 2.3)*3
(Design rule for Camera File system compliant / DPOF-compatible)
3D : MPO
movie
H.264(MOV)
Linear PCM / monaural sound
Number of recorded pixels
still image
L : (4:3) 4608 x 3456 / (3:2) 4608 x 3072 / (16:9) 4608 x 2592 / (1:1) 3456 x 3456
M : (4:3) 3264 x 2448 / (16:9) 3264 x 1836
S : (4:3) 2048 x 1536 / (16:9) 1920 x 1080
  Fujinon 5x optical zoom lens
Focal length f=5.0mm - 25.0mm, equivalent to 28 - 140mm on a 35mm format
Full-aperture F3.9 (Wide) - F4.9 (Telephoto)
Constitution 11 groups 13 lenses
Digital zoom Intelligent digital zoom : approx. 2x (up to approx. 10x, with 5x optical zoom)
Aperture F3.9 / F6.2 (Wide)
F4.9 / F8 (Telephoto)
Focus distance (from lens surface)
Normal
  • Wide : Approx. 60cm to infinity/2.0ft to infinity
  • Telephoto : Approx. 1.0m to infinity/3.3ft to infinity
Macro
  • Wide : Approx. 9cm - 80cm / 3.5in. - 2.6ft.
  • Telephoto : Approx. 40cm - 80cm / 1.3ft. - 2.6ft.
Sensitivity Auto, ISO 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600 / 3200 / 6400* (Standard Output Sensitivity)
  • * ISO 6400 is effective in image size M or S.
Exposure control TTL 256-zone metering
Exposure mode Programmed AE
Shooting modes SR AUTO, AUTO, Program AE, Pro low-light, HDR, Natural Light & with Flash, Natural Light, Portrait, Landscape, Advanced Filter, Motion Panorama 360, Sport, Night, Night (Tripod), Sunset, Snow, Beach, Under water, Under water (Macro), Party, Flower, Text, Individual Shutter 3D
Image stabilisation Optical image stabilization (CMOS shift type)
Exposure compensation -2.0EV - +2.0EV 1/3EV step
Shutter speed (Auto mode) 1/4sec. to 1/2000sec., (All other modes) 4sec. to 1/2000sec.
Continuous shooting
TOP
H : approx. 10fps (max. 10 frames)
M : approx. 5.0fps (max. 10 frames)
L : approx. 3.0fps (max. 10 frames)
SH : approx. 60fps (max. 70 frames*)
  • * 16:9 S size only
LAST
H : approx. 10fps (max. 20 frames, last 10 frames recorded)
M : approx. 5.0fps (max. 20 frames, last 10 frames recorded)
L : approx. 3.0fps (max. 20 frames, last 10 frames recorded)
Auto bracketing -
Focus
mode
Single AF / Continuous AF (SR AUTO)
type
TTL contrast AF
AF frame selection
Center / Multi / Tracking
White balance Automatic scene recognition
Preset
Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light, Under water
Self timer Approx. 10sec. / 2sec. delay, Couple Timer, Group Timer
Flash Auto flash (i-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
Red-eye removal OFF
Auto, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro.
Red-eye removal ON
Red-eye Reduction Auto, Red-eye Reduction & Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Red-eye Reduction & Slow Synchro.
Hot shoe -
LCD monitor 2.7-inch, approx. 230,000dots, TFT colour LCD monitor, approx. 100% coverage
Movie recording 1920 x 1080pixels / 1280 x 720pixels (60frames/sec.) / 640 x 480pixels (30frames/sec.) with monaural sound.
Zoom function can be used.
Photography functions SR AUTO, Face Detection, Auto Red-eye removal, Framing guide (Best framing, HD framing), Frame No. memory, Date stamp, Motion Panorama 360, Pro low light, HDR, Individual Shutter 3D, Advanced Filter(Toy Camera, Miniature, Pop Colour, High-key, Soft Focus, Cross Screen, Partial Colour/Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple), High Speed movie (80 / 160 / 240fps), Automatic LCD brightness adjustment
Playback functions Face Detection, Auto Red-eye removal, Resize, Crop, Slide show, Multi-frame playback (with microthumbnail), Image rotate, Photobook assist, Mark for upload, Erase selected frames, Favorite, Image Search, Panorama, Movie edit
Other functions PictBridge, Exif Print, 35 languages selection, Time difference, Silent mode
Dustproof : IP6X
Waterproof : IPX8 (up to 6.0m, within 120min.)
Anti-shock : Method;MIL-STD-810F-516.5 Fuji's standard;1.5 m
Terminal
Video output
-
Digital interface
USB 2.0 High-Speed
HDMI output
HDMI Micro connector
Power supply Li-ion battery NP-45A (included)
Dimensions 104.1mm (W) x 66.5mm (H) x 26.3mm (D) / 4.0in. (W) x 2.6in. (H) x 1.0in. (D)
  • * excluding projections.
Weight Approx.183g / 6.4oz. (including battery and memory card)
Approx.165g / 5.8oz. (excluding battery and memory card) 
Operating temperature -10°C - 40°C (+14°F - +104°F)
Operating humidity 10% - 80% (no condensation)
Battery life Approx. 200 frames (AUTO mode)
  • * Fujifilm research based on CIPA standards
Accessories included Li-ion battery NP-45A
AC Power adapter
USB cable
Hand strap
CD-ROM
Owner's manual
Optional accessories Li-ion battery NP-45A
Battery charger BC-45W
FINEPIX REAL 3D V3
Float Strap FS-FXZ33
 
  • *1 Number of effective pixels: The number of pixels on the image sensor which receive input light through the optical lens, and which are effectively reflected in the final output data of the still image.
  • *2 Please see the Fujifilm website to check memory card compatibility.
  • *3 Exif 2.3 is a digital camera file format that contains a variety of shooting information for optimal printing.

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