I’ve asked Dear Husband (DH) to write a review about his (our? this remains unclear) underwater camera that we used for the first time when we went to Belize for our honeymoon. He gladly obliged, after some nagging.
We are “normal” picture takers–we like good photos, but we aren’t really into photography. We stumble along through trial, error, and some professional tips from friends and family. Yes, we know what aperture and shutter speed mean and do, can shoot on manual, and I’ve even started doing some basic editing (that took years), but that’s about the extent of our photographic wisdom. So if you are a photo-bug…you can probably stop reading, this post isn’t for you! But if you are a traveler looking into underwater cameras for fun shooting, read on.
My wife has asked me to write a review of the Fujifilm FinePix XP200 16MP Digital Camera, which was a combined present for my birthday/Christmas. Not sure why she thinks it’s “ours”, it’s definitely mine. I’m even good at sharing unlike someone else I know…
I have a December birthday and it seems people get worried that we are cheated out of gifts since it’s also Christmas-time, so I can get creative with my gift requests. My father-in-law, who actually is a really good photographer, suggested we look into this specific camera because of its affordability, good reputation, and general purpose use for underwater picture taking. So thanks to my parents, I got a sweet camera last December and managed to take some very cool pictures and videos of our snorkeling adventures in Belize.
When I requested the camera in December 2013, the cost was around $200 which was by far the lowest priced underwater camera with good Amazon reviews. However, I now see that the camera lists for over $350, which I think is a bit pricey for this type of camera.
The Basic Specs:
-5x optical zoom,
-full 1080p HD video at 60fps,
-great presets for underwater shooting,
-3 inch display on the back, and
-wifi to download picture to smartphone or tablet.
The Pros: First and foremost the camera is super easy to use. I know a lot of people that are photography buffs want to know about shutter speed and light sensitivity: if that is what you are after, you should have heeded our advice at the top of the post! But if you want something that you can set to underwater mode and just start taking pictures, boom, this is the one for you. Want to take a close up macro shot, set to macro and click away. I thought the presets worked amazingly for all the environments we were in. Sunny day at the beach? Put the beach mode on. Of course there are the other standard party, night time, flower, text, sunset, sport, 360 panorama, and landscape modes. There is also a 3D picture mode, but I have yet to really try that one.Another positive is that the camera is small and compact so you can put your hand through the wrist strap and swim around without worrying about having a bulky camera knocking about. The underwater picture quality is great, the battery life is also quite long. We would go out in the morning snorkel for about 1.5 hours, then go out again for another 2 hours of snorkeling in the afternoon and I still had over 2/3 battery life even though we took well over 160 pictures and some videos (plus reviewed and deleted bad ones throughout the day).
Perhaps most importantly: the camera appears to really be waterproof, with a great seal. NO problems there. There is a turn button that initiates the seal where the battery and memory card go. One word of advice: make sure you wipe the salt off after using it in salt water. I did notice that salt would accumulate around the rubber seal; if not cleaned, this could cause issues down the road.
The Cons: The biggest issue we had with the camera is that the display was not always bright enough to see underwater (especially when your mask gets a bit foggy which mine always seems to get) and especially when it is very sunny. However, since the camera usually takes such good quality pictures, as long as your aim was right, you got a clear shot of wherever you were pointing.
Another con was the 5x optical zoom. Obviously you can’t have a telescopic lens for higher optical zoom and maintain a waterproof single unit, but there are other devices out there with 8x and 11x zoom. However, those other devices can’t shoot video is 1080p and are usually made by less well-known manufacturers.
The only other major issue I had was that I could only use the wifi feature with my wife’s ipad and iphone. I have a Kindle Fire and there was no compatible app for me to use. I am not sure about compatibility to Android devices, but my guess is there should be a compatible app there to use. Additionally, while the battery life is generally good, what will eat up your battery is using the wifi mode to transfer pictures to you smartphone or tablet (30 pictures at a time, but does not transfer videos).
Lastly, the HD video at 60 fps is awesome, but what is not so awesome is that the video format is not readily viewable on my xbox, LG blue ray, or LG tv unless I get a micro HDMI cable to directly connect the camera to the TV. So I had to convert the videos to a different format which results in going from 60 fps to 30 fps, though the video quality is still fine.
The Bottom Line: For a $200 dollar camera, I would give it 4.5/5 stars. It is a great point and shoot camera, easy to use, convenient wifi picture transfer, but the display is not always bright enough and there are some minor annoyances with wifi picture transfer and lack of video playback compatibility. However, if I had to pay $350, I would look for a better camera with more bells and whistles or make sure I got this camera as a gift, as I did.
Cheers,
Jeff (DH)
