Fujifilm FinePix XP30 review

Fujifilm FinePix XP30 : Fujifilm’s new tough compact with GPS

Dubbed a ‘born survivor’, the FinePix XP30 from Fujifilm is competing to become your next travel companion. It can handle being dunked in up to 5 metres of water, dropped from 1.5 metres and frozen in -10-degree temperatures. Where sleeker, smaller compacts on the market would break down, the XP30 offers four-way protection within a stylish chassis.

Tough compacts are known for their boxy, nuts-and-bolts design, but the XP30 is nevertheless one of the more attractive models we’ve seen. It follows the trend of demonstrating its willingness for extreme shooting by the loud colours it’s available in: bright green, orange, and blue, or conventional black and silver.

One of the big differences between this latest offering and its tough compact competition is that it’s one of the first to boast GPS (Global Positioning System) technology. The location that you captured a photo in is added to the picture’s EXIF data, which is particularly useful for travellers looking to catalogue and browse through images easily. It is also an appealing feature for those who like to explore, as the Photo Navigation mode displays the distance and compass direction to previously GPS-tagged images from the present location. The GPS connection time varies depending on location, and it can be switched on permanently or only when the camera is on, but be warned: this feature causes a significant drain on battery life, so if charging is an issue, it’s best to avoid it.

Another feature aimed at the travel photographer is the Photobook Assist function that sorts the images into specific locations, enabling you to quickly call them up and flick through on the camera’s LCD as though it were a book. However, the LCD can only be viewed clearly indoors because bright light blanches the screen. It’s slightly smaller than the standard three inches, but the buttons are laid out logically with a d-pad and playback button situated to the right. Press the playback button and you are granted access to basic editing tools such as cropping, contrast, and red-eye removal, which is useful for those on the move.

There is also the welcome introduction of a dedicated movie record button, which didn’t feature on its predecessor, the XP10. Incidentally, video capture is at 1280 x 720 with mono sound, but action footage was rather stuttered. Similarly, when trying to capture a still of a subject that is anything but stationary the images end up looking badly blurred. Even when set to Sports mode, the XP30 fails to keep up with the pace of a slight turn of the head.

Essentially, the XP30 is a point-and-shoot compact with only Automatic, 17 specific scene modes or Program mode that allows the user to select the ISO, white balance and AF mode. The limited bounds of creativity would have been easier to live with if it weren’t for the average results. Sharpness is the main issue here, as images are soft even when lighting conditions are considerably good. In low light the XP30 struggles too, as the compact falls victim to a common case of too many megapixels crammed onto a small sensor. Noise is a major problem beyond ISO 200 and prints larger than the small 6 x 9 frame wouldn’t be possible with this camera.

In its favour, the XP30 is very competitively priced and looks stylish, despite being designed with practicality in mind. A rubber grip on the side stops wet fingers from slipping and the lens has a folded zoom for protection, tucked away in the corner. Its ability to withstand abuse, from scrapes to soakings, is admirable, and will appeal to the intrepid traveller or young family. However, anyone in the market for a tough compact with above-average image quality should look to the XP30’s Olympus or Panasonic equivalents.