Part One
The XP20 is Fujifilm’s answer for people who’d rather not think twice before bringing a camera somewhere wet, cold, or likely to get dropped. Waterproof, shockproof, freezeproof, dustproof — the whole rugged checklist. Strip away the tough shell and it’s a fairly ordinary point-and-shoot underneath: 14-megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom, a standard set of shooting modes.
This review gets into how it actually holds up in use, what the photos look like, and whether the price makes sense.
Making Up The Parts Of A Digital Camera
Just like any other digital camera, the Fujifilm FinePix XP20 consists of several parts that together assist in the process of capturing and storing images. These parts comprise:
Lens – The XP20 comes with a 5x optical zoom lens with a focal length of 28-140mm (35mm equivalent) and thus enables the user to take both wide-angle shots and close-up shots.
Image sensor – The XP20 has a 14-megapixel picture resolution CCD, thus able to produce high-quality images at a maximum resolution of 4,288 x 3,216 pixels.
Processor – The image processor in the camera receives the data from the image sensor and converts it into a digital image. The XP20 has a Fujifilm EXR processor that ensures maximum image quality with minimal noise.
Display – The camera is equipped with a 2.7-inch LCD display that serves multiple purposes such as the composition and review of images as well as camera menu navigation.
18MB of internal storage is basically nothing — you’re buying an SD card same day, no way around it. SD, SDHC, SDXC are all supported, so at least there’s no proprietary format to hunt down.
Battery’s rechargeable lithium-ion, good for about 200 shots. Nothing special, but for a rugged camera you’re taking underwater or into the cold, that’s a reasonable trade-off against a bigger battery bulking up the body.
14 megapixels is enough resolution to actually hold detail, which matters more here than on most point-and-shoots since this is a camera people will want to print vacation photos from.
ISO 100-3,200 is a genuinely wide range for this class wider than most of the compacts covered earlier, so it’ll handle a dim room or an overcast beach day without forcing the flash on you.
Shutter runs 1/2000 to 4 seconds. Fast enough for kids or pets moving around, slow enough on the other end if you want to play with motion blur on purpose.
Aperture’s fixed – f/3.9 wide, f/4.9 telephoto. No shallow depth-of-field tricks here, but nobody buying a waterproof camera is shopping for bokeh anyway.
White balance adjusts for different light sources so your colors don’t come out looking sickly under fluorescent or warm under tungsten.
Autofocus is contrast-detect, single or continuous. It’s not the fastest system out there, but for grabbing snapshots on a hike or at the beach, it doesn’t need to be.
One thing worth flagging: stabilization on the XP20 is digital, not optical. That’s a step down from the optical stabilization on some of the other cameras covered here, digital stabilization mostly crops and nudges the image rather than physically countering shake at the lens, so it helps some, just not as much.
Immediate Review & Editing – With the XP20, you can have an instant review of your pictures on the LCD screen and delete those images that are not to your liking. It allows for some basic edits such as cropping or brightness adjustments without the use of a computer.
14 megapixels through Fujifilm’s EXR processor — that combination’s actually doing something, not just a spec-sheet pairing. Colors come out close to accurate without much need to fix them after the fact.
Stabilization’s built in, and it matters most exactly when you’d expect: low light, or zoomed all the way in, since both situations turn a small hand tremor into a genuinely blurry shot.
In terms of connectivity, the XP20 has a USB port and an HDMI port which allow you to hook it to a computer or to a TV. This shared experience would allow for a very effortless photo and video sharing, in addition to the SD card slot, for storing your images and videos with ease.
If you only want one camera for the outdoors, the XP20 makes a pretty good case. It survives the abuse, the photos hold up, and you don’t need to read a manual to use it. That’s really the whole pitch for anyone who wants to document an active lifestyle without treating their camera like glass.
Fujifilm FinePix XP20 14 MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom (Black): Buy it now
Fujifilm FinePix XP20 Blue 14 MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD: Buy it now
Related Posts
Tech Reviewer & Product Analyst
Định Bia has spent over 10 years testing consumer electronics with a focus on smart technology. He work as a product advisor at Biareview where he helped customers find the right devices for their needs. He personally tests every product featured on this site using a consistent evaluation framework covering quality, durability, and value. All reviews are based on experience, not influenced by the manufacturer.