Introduction

Ease of Use

There are only differences between the new XP130 and the it's predecessor, the 1-year-old XP120, namely the addition of Bluetooth connectivity for easier sharing, eye-detect auto-focusing, an electronic level guage to help keep your horizon straight, and slightly longer battery life (240 shots). In all other repects the two cameras are identical, so if you can still find the XP120 at a discounted price, it might be a better fit for you. Subsequently almost everything that we said in our XP120 review applies equally to the new XP130.

The first new feature on the XP130 is Bluetooth connectivity. As with Canon's implementation on some of their recent cameras, you can use this feature to connect the XP130 to a smartphone, even when the camera is turned off, and automatically transfer images from it for backup or more probably sharing via your social network of choice.

Eye-detect auto-focusing has been added to the Face Detect menu, which now offers 5 different options, 3 of which incorportae eye-detect - they are Face On/Eye Auto, Face On/Right Eye Priority and Face On/Left Eye Priority. In practice we found that the camera reliably detected human eyes in most instances, although as it's part of the face-detect system, the camera also automatically apples red-eye reduction, which can't be over-rided by the user.

Thew Electronic Level is turned off by default (we have no idea why), but once you've found and enabled it, it's a fairly useful feature. We say only fairly, though, as it only works for the horizontal axis, not the vertical axis too, and also it's implemented as quite a difficult-to-see, very thin white/green line.

The last new "feature" is improved batery life, up from 210 shots on the XP120 to 240 on the XP130, still hardly earth-shattering.

Front of the Fujifilm FinePix XP130

One of the best things about the Fujifilm FinePix XP130 is that its small and light, making it easy to slip in a pocket or bag ready for your travels. It’s got a reasonably attractive rounded edge design, and is available in a range of colours. We were supplied with a stylish white option, which is great for spotting the camera if you’re using it in typical tough conditions, such as underwater, but perhaps less so in the snow!

A 5x optical zoom is housed inside the XP130, with no protrusions from the camera even when zooming. This is to make sure that the camera is safe from drops and sealed from water and dust from entering it.

The battery and memory card compartment can be found on the side of the Fujifilm FinePix XP130, and are protected by a locking mechanism which you need to push in and twist to open. This prevents the door from opening when underwater and letting water into the camera. When you switch on the camera, it will prompt you to make sure that the door is fully closed and locked before you use it.

Front of the Fujifilm FinePix XP130

Although the buttons are a little on the small side, they are all well pronounced from the body of the XP130, making them easy to find and push when using the camera in difficult conditions, such as when wearing gloves or underwater. Furthermore, all of the buttons are grouped on the right hand side of the camera, so you’ll be able to make any settings changes when shooting one handed.

On the top of the Fujifilm XP130 is the on/off button, the video record button and the shutter release. There is a ridge in between the video record and the on/off button so you should hopefully not mistake the two and record accidental videos. The shutter release button is large and textured, again making it easy to find when using the camera underwater or when your visibility is impinged.

Flipping to the back of the Fujifilm FinePix XP130, and you’ll find all the buttons you need to make any camera changes. To zoom the lens, you’ll find two buttons marked W (wide) and T (tele). Zooming is reasonably quick and fluid, while the separation of these buttons is useful to keep the buttons distinct when using gloves, or shooting underwater.

Rear of the Fujifilm FinePix XP130

There’s a small playback button which you’ll use to access your images. From here, you can scroll through your images, and delete anything you don’t need. You can also set up wireless communication to transfer any images you’ve taken across to a smartphone or tablet for quick sharing online.

A four way navigational pad is available, with each of the buttons doubling up for a different function. The up button accesses exposure compensation (or delete in playback), the right button accesses flash modes, the left button switches on and off macro focusing, and the down button switches on the self-timer. In the middle of the navipad is a main menu button which gives you access to the main shooting menu where you can make further settings changes.

The final two buttons on the back of the Fujifilm XP130 include a direct access to high frame rate button, which doubles up as a wi-fi button. There’s also a display button which you can use to alter how the screen displays information.

Top of the Fujifilm FinePix XP130

A range of different shooting modes are available, which you can access through the main menu. Most users will probably want to leave it on Scene Recognition Auto. The camera is good at detecting what kind of image you’re trying to photograph, such as landscape and macro, and change its own settings accordingly. However, there’s also a range of specific scene and auto modes here to choose from. For those who are a little more advanced, shooting in Program mode gives you the option to make changes to certain settings such as white balance and ISO, but you can’t alter shutter speed or aperture. There’s also no raw format shooting available.

If you like to experiment with different looks and effects, switching to “Advanced Mode” gives you the option to choose between some different creative filters, as well as using a panoramic mode for ultra wide angle shots. There are also dedicated underwater modes if you find yourself shooting in an underwater situation.

A flash is inbuilt for the XP130, which is activated via the navigational pad. It’s worth noting that you can’t use the flash if you’re working in silent mode, but you’ll be prompted to switch that off if you are.

The Fujifilm FinePix XP130 In-hand

The Fujifilm FinePix XP130’s screen is not touch-sensitive, and it’s fixed. That’s not particularly an issue with a camera like this, because it’s unlikely a touchscreen would work all that well underwater anyway. Generally speaking, the screen is bright enough to be seen from a variety of different angles, but it can be difficult to see what it is displaying if you’re holding the camera underwater, but the rest of you is not - for example, photographing rock pools or near the tide.

When shooting in good light, focusing is quick and generally accurate. When activating macro focusing, the XP130 can hunt a little before locking on - it’s unusual for a false confirmation of focus to be displayed, instead, if the camera can’t focus, a red square will be shown. In lower lighting conditions, the camera struggles a little more to gain focus, but a focusing assist lamp helps.

Using the Fujifilm FinePix XP130 in general is pretty quick - start up time is just a couple of seconds, while moving through the different settings and viewing your images in playback is generally rapid.

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.

It’s often the case that cameras which are “tough” don’t tend to have that great image quality - the main selling point being that you can still use them when other cameras would have to be packed away.

With the Fujifilm FinePix XP130 however, you could happily use the camera as your only holiday camera, no matter the shooting condition you’re working in. In good light, colours are bright and punchy without being overly saturated. A good overall impression of detail is also presented.

In lower light, shooting at higher ISO speeds, such as ISO 1600, results in slightly painterly effect type in images, with some image smoothing visible when examining at 100%. Still, the overall impression of detail remains more than usable when sharing at normal printing and web sizes. The highest settings of ISO 3200 and ISO 6400 are perhaps best avoided unless desperate to get the shot.

For the majority of situations, the XP130’s all-purpose metering system does a good job to produce balanced exposures, with barely any need to touch exposure compensation. The automatic white balance setting tends to err towards slightly warmer tones, but are generally quite pleasing.

When shooting underwater, the XP130 does a good job of producing accurate and pleasing images - but you might find you have best luck by switching to the specific underwater modes, rather than using automatic or Program mode.

The XP130 has a 5x optical zoom lens. It’s flexible enough to get close to most subjects, but image quality is the most detailed at the wide angle end.

Noise

The Fujifilm FinePix XP130 has seven sensitivity settings ranging from ISO 100 to 6400 at full resolution. However, the maximum ISO 6400 sensitivity is only recorded at 8MP/3264x2448 pixel resolution

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 Fujifilm FinePix XP130’s 5x zoom lens achieves a maximum wide-angle focal length equivalent to 28mm, and can zoom in to 140mm (in 35mm-camera terms).

28mm

140mm

Macro

The Fujifilm FinePix XP130’s lens will focus as close as 9cm from your subject, and does so reliably.

Macro

Flash

When shooting a white surface from a distance of 1.5m, the Fujifilm FinePix XP130’s flash produces noticeable vignetting with the lens at maximum wide angle, though fall-off is much less severe when you use longer focal lengths.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (28mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (28mm)
Flash Off - Telephoto (140mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (140mm)

In our testing with the XP130 successfully avoided red-eye and the flash produced only minor wide-angle vignetting from a distance of 1.5m.

Flash - On

Flash - Redeye

Advanced Filters

The Fujifilm FinePix XP130 offers eleven filter effects, all of which are previewed live and recorded at full resolution. Your options are: Toy Camera, Miniature, Pop Color, High Key, Low Key, Dynamic Tone, Fish-eye, Soft Focus, Cross Screen, Sketch, and Partial Color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple).

Toy Camera	Miniature
Pop Color	High Key
Low Key	Dynamic Tone
Fish-eye	Soft Focus
Cross Screen	Sketch
Partial Color

Panorama

Motion Panorama mode has 120, 180 and 360-degree pan options. Whichever you choose, images are recorded with a vertical resolution of 1088 pixels. That’s not exactly high, and the Fujifilm FinePix XP130’s panoramas also display small areas of stitching ghosting.

180 Degree

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Fujifilm FinePix XP130 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

Product Images

Conclusion

The Fujifilm FinePix XP130 is a minor upgrade of last year's XP120 camera, adding four mild improvements to keep things fresh for 2018. Fujifilm have apparently sold 5 million XP cameras since the first model was released, so they've clearly decided to stick with the tried and tested formula of previous editions to keep those impressive sales figures going.

Consequently, the new XP130 may feel a little jaded from a camera reviewer's point of view, but it's still a great choice for holidaying photographers who are looking for something small, light and convenient to throw in a bag for a family holiday. Being tough means that not only is it suitable for adventure type holidays, but it’s also useful for standard beach holidays as you don’t have to worry about getting it wet, or sand getting into any of the parts.

Image quality is good when shooting in bright light - something you’re likely to be doing when using it as a holiday camera. Having a range of different shooting conditions means you can take some control over it, but it’s best suited to those who are happy to use it in fully automatic.

Having a 5x optical zoom gives you enough flexibility for most holiday type subjects, but you’ll find the best image quality at the wide angle end of the lens. Focusing for static subjects is good and the addition of eye-focus for family portraits makes it even more reliable, but don’t expect to use the XP130 to capture super fast moving objects.

Using the Fujifilm FinePix XP130 is easy, although the buttons are a touch on the small side. They’re just about prominent enough to be easy to use with gloves or underwater, though. The screen doesn’t tilt or articulate, nor is it touch sensitive, but that’s not such an issue for a camera of this kind.

Overall, the Fujifilm FinePix XP130 will almost certainly continue the success of the XP-series despite the very small number of improvements on offer, thanks to its decent image quality, rugged build quality and affordability.

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

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Fujifilm FinePix XP130.

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Fujifilm FinePix XP130 from around the web.

Specifications

News

The Fujifilm FinePix XP130 tough camera is dustproof, waterproof to 20m, shockproof to 1.75mm and freezeproof, features a lightweight body, plus the latest Bluetooth technology for easy image transfer. The XP130 camera has a 16.4 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor, 5x optical zoom lens, 3.0-inch 920K-dot high definition LCD monitor, full HD video recording at 60 fps, and weighs just 207g. The Fujifilm XP130 will be available from February 2018, priced at £199.00 in the UK.

Fujifilm UK Press Release

Capture your adventure: the Fujifim XP series evolves further with the launch of the new XP130.

Following the success of worldwide sales over 5 million units, the latest camera in the XP series features four rugged protections, a lightweight body, and the latest Bluetooth® technology for easy image transfer. 

FUJIFILM Corporation (President: Kenji Sukeno) is delighted to announce the launch of the FinePix XP130, the latest tough camera in the XP series. Dustproof, waterproof to 20m, shockproof to 1.75mm*** and freezeproof, the XP130 is the perfect accessory for capturing a variety of adventures.

In addition to these four rugged protection features, the XP130 comes equipped with the latest Bluetooth® technology which enables easy to use, instant image transfer to smartphones and tablet devices, which widens the joy to share photos to the world.  The compact 207g XP130 also comes with a FUJINON lens that boasts the company’s unique colour reproduction technology and outstanding image quality delivered by 16.4 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor, making it an ideal choice for a wide variety of shooting situations.

Highlight Features

① Four rugged features: waterproof to 20m, shockproof to 1.75m, freezeproof to -10°C and dustproof
The XP130 is designed for ease of use during outdoor leisure activities with features including a grip design for firm one-handed grip and a double-locking mechanism for the battery compartment. The XP130 complies with IP68*4, the waterproof and dustproof protection standards for products. There is no need to worry about water, sand or dropping the camera, making it the perfect first camera for children as well.

*4 Waterproof and dustproof protection standards of products, stipulated by IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission)

② Bluetooth® pairing and wireless LAN connectivity with smartphones and tablet devices *5 for automatic photo transfer and Instax printing 
The newly installed Bluetooth® low energy technology allows automatic and instant image transfer to smartphones and tablet devices by easy paring registration.  The technology also syncs the time and location information from your device and attaches it to images.  To utilise this feature, users can download the free “FUJIFILM Camera Remote” app to their smartphone or tablet device and easily transfer photos and videos, by browsing photos and videos in the camera from the device and downloading directly.  For INSTAX Share printer users, images can be transferred from the camera directly to the INSTAX Share smartphone printer for quick printout.

*5 Android™ smartphone and tablet terminals, iPhone / iPad.

③ High-performance sensor and lens with unique colour reproduction technology for premium image quality
The XP130 is equipped with a 16.4 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor and FUJINON’s 5x optical zoom lens with the zoom range starting from 28mm*6 on the wide angle side. The optical zoom range can be doubled to 10x with Fujifilm’s Intelligent Digital Zoom technology. The camera also has an optical image stabilization mechanism to produce sharp images free of camera shake even in low light conditions. Fujifilm’s years of experience are reflected with its colour reproduction technology, which ensures beautiful colours in any conditions.

*6 35mm format equivalent.

④ Compact and lightweight design for outdoor activities and large 3.0-inch 920K-dot LCD monitor
The XP130 has a large 3.0-inch 920K-dot high definition LCD monitor in its compact and lightweight body of just 207g. The monitor inhibits light reflection so users are able to comfortably check composition and pictures taken under bright daylight or underwater. Despite its compact body, the operation buttons have been created in pursuit of optimal size and position, enabling smooth operation even if wearing gloves while skiing. A space to place one’s fingers have been secured in front of the camera’s body to allow it to be held at the ready even with one hand.

⑤ Versatile shooting functions to upgrade your photography
Users can enable the newly installed Electronic Level on the XP130. This is a particularly useful function for capturing horizontal subjects, such as beautiful landscapes or solid architecture. The Eye Detection feature helps to capture portraits easily by automatically focusing on the eyes of the subject. The XP130 offers a variety of other exciting features including the Cinemagraph mode, which produces still images with moving elements, the Time-Lapse Video function, which automatically converts images taken by the camera using the interval timer to video formats and the Burst Mode of up to 10 frames per second shooting, and smooth full HD video recording of 60 fps.
 
* As of 24th January
** Including battery and memory card.
*** Using measurement method MIL-Standard 810F Method5 16.5-Shock of the “MIL Standard”, a standard stipulating the durability of supplies procured by the American military, set by the United States Department of Defense.

AVAILABILITY AND PRICING

The FinePix XP130 will be available from February 2018 priced at £199.00

Your Comments