Fujifilm Finepix XP 50 : An All-Weather Camera Review.

I've just got the opportunity to use a waterproof digital camera Fujifilm Finepix XP 50, a tough camera which is designed for all weather activities.

Fujifilm Finepix XP 50 was released on 31 March 2012. The camera has a four-way-protection so that can endure underwater operations up to 5m/16ft, shock proof 1.5m/5ft, freeze proof -10°C/14°F, and dust proof. With those shields in hand, taking pictures while exploring water and land with a digital camera is no longer a hindrance. For excellent result, the camera is also equipped with 1080p, 30 fps Full High Definition (HD) movie recordings.

I bought the camera for 218 USD, although the camera is marketed at considerably lower price compared with XP150 and XP 100 which are around 50$ more expensive, but the price shouldn't fool us since XP 50 is as almost fully loaded as its siblings with 14.4 mega pixels resolution CMOS sensor together with FUJINON lense with 5x wide angle optical zoom (28-140 mm) and water repellent coating to ensure crisp pictures can be captured while the lense contacts with water.

XP 50 also has the capability to make burst shoots up to 10 frames per second in full resolution.

Moreover XP 50 also has 2.7 inch high contrast LCD which enables you to check your shoots clearly and make no worry about the glare caused by sunlight. This tough camera also comes with new design in its double lock latches on the right side to ensure the camera safety when it's used in underwater shooting. Inside this double locks chamber, battery, memory card, and cable data port are securely placed.

The FinePix XP50 also has Fujifilm’s Motion Panorama 360 mode, which automatically stitches together individual images captured in a single sweep across a scene to create one panoramic picture.

Overall image qualities resulted by Finepix XP50 are ranging from satisfactory to excellent. The colors look crisp although sometimes the image stabilization system doesn't work effectively so that I had to delete some pictures which didn't look really sharp.

Pictures taken in low light also gives good result, thanks to one of the shooting modes called Pro Low-light mode which captures four high ISO exposures, and then stacks them to create a single image with reduced noise levels.

Like other cameras, Fujifilm Finepix XP50 also has plus and minus points.

The Pluses:

• - Marketed in more affordable price than its siblings XP 150 and XP 100, and other waterproof cameras with equal features.
• -14.4 Mega pixels resolution gives it a competitive feature compared to other tough cameras.
• -Offers some unusual modes, like :

360° Panorama Mode: stitch together several photos to create a full 360-degree

panoramic pictures.

Pro Low light mode: arranges 4 high iso exposures together to create a single image

with low noise.

Dynamic Range mode: varies exposure between frames and combines them into a

single high dynamic range image.

The Natural Light & with Flash mode: captures each shot twice, once with flash and

once with higher sensitivity and natural light only.

Face Detection technology: be able to locate up to 6 faces simultaneously.

• can capture Full HD movies; that's 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, at 30 frames per second.

• Double locks: gives more protection for the camera when it's used under water.
• Water repellent lense coating: repels water from the lense to ensure best pictures resulted when contacts with water.

The minuses:

• The waterproofing can only be used till 5m (16.4 ft) deep.
• The sticker at the double locks area is easy to peel and seems not to last long.
• Smaller-than-everage-2.7 inch-LCD monitor.

Fujifilm FinePix XP50 Features:

• Waterproof down to 16.5ft (5M)
• Shockproof to 5ft (1.5M)
• Freezeproof to 14 degrees F (-10 degrees C)
• Dustproof
• 2.7" anti-reflective LCD monitor
• 14 MegaPixel CMOS sensor
• 10fps burst shooting
• FUJINON 5x optical zoom lens (28-140mm)
• Newly Redesigned Double Locking Door
• 1080p HD Movie recording (30fps)
• Dual Image Stabilization (CIS) system
• 360-degree Motion Panorama Mode
• Scene Recognition Auto (SR AUTO)
• Face Detection and Automatic Red-eye Removal
• Movie Editing
• Blog Mode
• Li-ion Rechargeable battery capable of 220 shots per charge

Based on the performance, including the picture results, and the numbers of plus and minus points, I give Fujifilm Finepix XP 50 a 4-star rating.