Just about every manufacturer has one in their lineup these days, and recently I got to try out the Fujifilm XP200 for about a month. Here’s my analysis and some sample images.
Main Specs
The Fujifilm XP200, (compare prices) (review) is designed as an adventure camera. It’s waterproof to 15m, dustproof, freezeproof to 14 degrees F, and shockproof enough to supposedly withstand a fall onto rocks from 6-feet. It has a rugged plastic design, with rubberized, extra grip, shock absorbing material on the sides and bottom that supposedly let you operate it while wearing gloves, weather sealing, a locking battery/memory card compartment and clear covers that protect the lens and the flash.
All in all, it seems like this little camera is made to with stand quite a bit of abuse. While I didn’t test the full capabilities of its durability, I did bang it around quite a bit, drop it on my office floor and run over it with my bike. It survived all of those, as well as a month of rattling around in the bottom of my daypack and being used in a variety of weather conditions in the outdoors.
Features
The main camera features are built around a 16MP 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor, a 3" LCD screen, a 5x optical zoom lens that offers an effective 28mm-140mm view angle, Full 1080p HD video, ISO from 100-6400, Tracking Autofocus and a max continuous shooting rate of 10 frames per second at the highest resolution. That’s faster than any DSLR I own. Like many compacts these days, the XP200 also has built in Wi-Fi, which allows you to pair it with the Fujifilm app and transfer images directly from the camera to your mobile device.
It doesn’t shoot RAW, but the XP does feature a number of different JPEG modes, including Standard, Chrome (instead of Velvia) Black & White and Sepia. It has Macro, Panorama, and 14 scene modes (it lacks aperture or shutter priority modes) and a number of special filters like Toy Camera, Miniature, High Key, Partial Color and Soft Focus. Most of these are the same filters that are found on the higher level X Cameras like the XE-1, X100S and X20. You won’t find the wide array of film simulations that the other X models have, but all in all, it has enough versatility to keep you busy and spark your creativity with whatever subject matter you’re shooting.
Ergonomics
I’ll admit, I’m not really a point and shoot guy. I’m so used to bigger cameras, that something this small just feels a little weird in my hands at first. That said, once I got a feel for how I was supposed to hold it, I felt comfortable with the ergonomics of the XP200. The control buttons on the back of the camera are laid out well and the menus looks and feel similar to the other Fuji cameras that I’ve used. The zoom lens is controlled by your thumb, and there’s also a record button and a special “Burst mode” button which automatically puts the camera into continuous mode. This is a really nice feature, because it allows you to set yourself up for shooting fast breaking scenes without having to go digging into the menu. One press and you’re ready to capture those skiers or downhill mountain bikers in action.
The LCD screen has an anti-reflective coating which is designed to offer good visibility, even in bright light. I used the camera in a variety of lighting conditions and in super bright sunshine, it’s still a little hard to see the screen.
Quality
Keep in mind, the XP200 has a much smaller sensor than even the X20. Still, I found that it did a pretty good job with everything that I threw at it. Exposure was good in both sun and shade, and for a pocket camera, it’s as sharp as anything else in it’s class. There’s definitely some grain in the darker mid tones, even at low ISOs. It’s most noticeable with out of focus subjects in the foreground. You know it’s there, but it’s not obtrusive. The Fuji cameras seem to do a pretty good job of making grain and noise look painterly and not ugly.
One thing to note, I was using the XP200, as well as the Fuji XE-1 and my Nikon DSLR to shoot road biking one day, and found that of all three cameras, the little XP200 did the best job rendering the purple on one of the FED EX jerseys that a rider was wearing. Both the other two cameras had trouble accurately reproducing the exact tone that I saw with my eye. Sure, I was able to tweak the Nikon RAW files in Lightroom, but for shooting straight JPEGS, this is a testament to how good the XP200’s image processor is.
Overall
Bottom line is that the Fuji XP200 is lots of fun to use and it would be an ideal camera for hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts. I enjoyed my time with it and shot a variety of landscapes, nature and sports. While Image quality is obviously not as sharp as something like the X20 (that camera costs over twice as much), the XP200 lens is decent and the photos it produces are good enough for anything that you’d normally use a point and shoot camera for. Again, tradeoffs.
It’s got some very good features, like the Burst Mode button, AF tracking and face recognition. In addition, all the different shooting modes give you plenty of creative options. Autofocus is reasonably fast, and and for most subjects, I found it to be pretty accurate, especially since you can control the active AF zone with the thumb dial. Big plus here.Perhaps the best part about the XP200 is the price. It costs quite a bit less than the Nikon AW110 and most other cameras in its class. Overall, the XP200 is an affordable little camera that can accompany you into the dirty, rainy, dusty, muddy and rugged places in the outdoors, get the shots and come back relatively unscathed. And even if you do destroy it, at least you didn’t wreck your more expensive camera.
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