Fujifilm FinePix XP10 Digital Camera - Black (12MP, 5x Optical Zoom) 2.7 inch LCD

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 flash on, face detection, AF etc etc it takes anything up to half a second from pressing the shutter button to the camera actually taking a shot. This sounds like quite a time lag, but to be fair, go look at other cameras on the market and you'll see that quite a few bottom end cameras like this are the same. Turn off most of the extras like face detection and anti red-eye flash, and you can reduce this time quite a bit. On the subject of AF, it seems to be continuously focusing when in face detection mode, this is battery wasting, so personally I turn off the face detection. There are also less options in the menu's, than a similarly priced non-waterproof camera (for example colour tints are limited to colour, B&W as well as sepia, many cameras now offer a plethora of options like this). Finally the instruction manual is best described as inadequate, beyond how to charge the battery and take a simple photo there is little else.

Out in the real world:

I decided to do a bit of personal extreme testing to cover the main reason for buying the camera. I can confirm after taking a bath last night and messing with the camera, that it functions OK in under and round water; as I said before if it gets down to 3m deep then I'll leave it there, life's too short to go diving down searching for a camera underwater. I can also confirm that after sticking in my freezer the camera, apart from the thing misting up works fine whilst cold. (Please note, this is external misting, as you'd expect from anything you remove from a freezer, not a defect with the camera). Drop testing I did by dropping about 2 meters onto my bed, yes its not the claimed 1m onto a slid surface, but I was doing this with my own personal camera so lets not go crazy.

The camera needs you to learn what the best settings, not the ideal solution for a point and shoot model, but once you get there you can turn out some good happy snaps. The pictures are not bad admittedly the colours can be a little bit washed out at times, but the flash can be a little harsh on portraits, and the already mentioned slow AF does not help at times. But when the camera's on form, you can get some really pleasing shots.

To Summarise:

If you are looking for a new camera, that will be your only camera, I'd recommend you look elsewhere. For the same money you can get a cracking camera with better features that isn't waterproof. Having the waterproof case in a camera will always be a compromise, so you have to expect this regardless of which model of camera you choose. That said this model's great if you have the need to buy a cheap water proof/dust proof camera, that will allow you to take a few snaps while sailing, swimming or lounging on the beach, then this could well be what you need.

No this camera's not perfect, but when taking in to account that waterproof feature, there's little (and if you take out of the picture Fuji's Z33, then theres nothing) on the market at this price range thats a direct competitor.

A NOTE ON THE VIDEO:

I have this weekend been out with the family, and shot a few minutes of the HD video to see what the results were, specifically for a more rounded review here. OK the camera claims to be capable of HD video shooting, it also offers 640 and 320 video recording. The first comment I'd have to make is in reference to the inbuilt mic. Its garbage, the ambient sounds picked up are muffled, in fact the only sounds recorded well, are the sounds of the zoom and auto focus working in the lens.

So now for video quality: the HD video, is surprisingly good when working well, the colours are slightly over saturated, but not too much. Remember this is a camera being used to make video, so Personally I'm surprised how good its turned out. There does seem to be a problem with the auto-focus while using video. Once it has a focus lock, its fine, but from my experiences, if you tap the zoom, you loose focus (this is perfectly normal with any lens when you shift focal length). However, the lens seems to have difficulty refinding its focus after a zoom if you are also moving the camera to track a quick moving object like a toddler or car. The final problem in HD shooting seems to be the frame rate. The frames may be at HD size, but in a fast panning/tracking situation, the camera seems to offer jerky movement or dropped frames.

Drop the frame size down to 640 (good enough for You Tube) and most of these problems go away. With the AF all problems seem to be gone, also the dropping of frames is gone, although the mic is still pointless. Drop down to the 320 video, and you get low res video good enough to email, but not much else. So for video I'll be sticking.

I'm trying to be critical of the Video for fairness, and maybe I'm too critical. Read more ›

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 !!!

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.