Fujifilm FinePix XP200 underwater camera

Introduction

The Fujifilm FinePix XP200 is a compact camera that is fully water- and weather-sealed. In this case, that means waterproof to a depth of 15m, shockproof to a height of 2m, freezeproof to -10°C and dustproof.
The 1/2.3″ 16 megapixel CMOS sensor is coupled with a 28-140 mm wide-to-tele stabilised lens in a very lightweight and sporty looking package. It has no RAW capabilities, and that is a problem for correcting underwater colour shift.

Fujifilm FinePix XP200 in use 

The jpg compression leaves massive visible smoothing from ISO200 upwards. ISO800 is the highest ISO setting I would use, as edges start becoming unsharp, and image quality gravely deteriorates. But that is to be expected with a sensor of this size.

The zoom lens does not work well underwater; you’ll have to be pretty close to being able to make a decent picture. Out of the water, it is about what you’d expect of a compact camera and is fine for the usual holiday shots. Continuous shooting goes up to 10fps for a maximum of 9 frames at full resolution.

The Fujifilm FinePix XP200 can shoot 1920 x 1080 pixels full HD video, at a maximum rate of 360fps. A dedicated movie recording button makes it easy to switch to video recording mode with a single touch. 
There is a vast range of shooting modes available for an automatic scene detection to underwater, fuji art filters and panorama. I use this camera mainly in the Auto mode, and it is always spot on when it comes to scene detection.

The 3 inch, 920.000 dots LCD performs well underwater, depending on the visibility of the water, of course. This camera is also Wifi capable (for transferring pictures to your phone) with the same iPhone or Android app used with all recent Fuji cameras.

Conclusion

This is a fun and versatile little camera, easy to take with you on travels and does a decent job at capturing your holiday shots. It delivers the same picture quality as most APS-C compact cameras and is very robust. Overall, the Fujifilm FinePix XP200 does what its supposed to do, I just wish the quality of the underwater capabilities were better, as it is my primary use for this camera.