Fujifilm FinePix XP70 Review

August 8, 2014 | Jack Baker |

Introduction
Ease of Use
Image Quality
Sample Images
Product Images
Rating & Conclusion
Main Rivals
Specifications
Comment
More…

Introduction

Toughened-up, waterproof cameras are great for capturing life in the fast lane, but their extra ruggedness rarely comes cheap. At £169.99 / $229.99 the Fujifilm FinePix XP70 is hardly pocket change, but it’s as much as half the price of some high-end waterproof compacts. And it’s not as if Fuji has cut many features in line with the price. The XP70 is waterproof to 10 metres, shockproof from 1.5-metre heights, freezeproof to -10°C and dustproof as well. Wi-Fi connectivity for wireless image sharing is present too, as is Full HD video recording, 10fps burst shooting and HDR capture. With 16.4 megapixels on tap and 5x optical zoom with image stabilisation, the Fujifilm FinePix XP70 has the specs to rival its pricier rivals, but can it deliver comparable performance?

Ease of Use

There’s no mistaking the Fujifilm FinePix XP70 for anything other than an action-orientated camera. With colour choices consisting of bright blue, yellow or orange; the camera will look right at home on the beach, but rather out of its element in more formal environments.

But if you can get past the Fisher-Price looks, the XP70 is actually a pleasant camera to use. A pronounced rubber-coated ridge on the front and a good-sized thumb grip makes the camera feel secure when shooting. Just be careful your left hand doesn’t accidently stray into the lens’ field of view, as this is surprisingly easy given its positioning in the upper corner of the camera.

You needn’t worry about subjecting the XP70 to plenty of rough and tumble though, as it easily shrugged off the numerous drops and gratuitous abuse we subjected it to. Just don’t expect the glossy plastic casing to hide scratches well, and unlike some fancier tough cameras, the XP70 doesn’t have a crush-resistance rating.

Although only rated to withstand a relatively modest 10-metre submersion in water, the Fujifilm FinePix XP70 is still equipped with a double-locked door protecting the battery and card slots which is very difficult to accidentally open when underwater.


Front	Rear

Controls are kept to a minimum, but they’re well-spaced and usable whilst wearing gloves. There’s the usual directional dial on the rear panel that doubles as controls for the flash, self-timer, macro mode and exposure compensation, and beneath this is a dedicated Wi-Fi activation control. Two simple buttons adjust the zoom, and though they’re somewhat spongey, they do the job, leaving the top panel free for a generously-sized shutter release, power button and video record control.

But at this price point something has to give in order to bring the camera in on budget, and unfortunately the XP70’s screen is an obvious example of cost-cutting. Its 2.7” size is down on the 3.0” standard you’ll find on most tough cameras, but with a 460k-dot resolution, image previews are still fairly crisp. Restricted viewing angles are more annoying though, resulting in a lack of colour and contrast accuracy compared to the higher quality displays. You’ll also need to ditch the automatic brightness adjustment for the screen to really shine on a summer’s day, but with the brightness cranked manually the XP70’s monitor is able to cope well under direct sunlight.

Getting the Fujifilm FinePix XP70 ready to shoot is as easy as pressing the mode button located in the centre of the rear directional dial and accessing the Shooting Mode menu. It's a pity the shooting modes can't be accessed via a direct dial, but there are plenty of nifty options to choose from. The default Scene Recognition mode automatically applies a scene pre-set that fits the subject you're focussing on, or you can switch to the standard Auto mode to shoot without the additional image processing applied when using Scene Recognition.

The XP70's exposure metering generally captures accurately exposed images, but if you do need to apply some exposure compensation, the Program AE mode will let you do so, as well as adjust settings like ISO sensitivity and white balance. It’s usually best to leave the latter in automatic mode however, as this rarely produces any nasty surprises or colour casts.


Top	Front

But the fun really begins with the multi-exposure HDR mode that'll capture greater dynamic range from high-contrast scenes, as well as the Motion Panorama 360 automatic panorama capture and attractive Advanced Filter effects. These include Toy Camera, Miniature, Dynamic tone and Fish-Eye looks that add plenty of creative appeal. Check out the Image Quality section of this review for examples.

Fuji is keen to flaunt the Fujifilm FinePix XP70's Action Camera mode which is designed to record HD video with a wide-angle field of view similar to recordings shot on GoPro action camcorders. Trouble is, the XP70's maximum 28mm-equivalent wide angle focal length is just too narrow for this, hence Fuji has the answer in the shape of the ACL-XP70 wide angle converter lens. This attaches to the camera’s tripod socket and gives it the look of a bug-eyed monster. It’ll also give you wide angle video though, but at an additional £40/$70 cost, making the Action Camera mode less appealing.

A feature you won’t have to pay extra to get the most out of is the useful Wi-Fi connectivity that’ll let you transfer images wirelessly to a mobile device. It’s surprisingly speedy too, taking approximately five seconds to transfer a full resolution image. There’s no NFC pairing so you’ll need to jump through the traditional hoops of manually connecting to the XP70’s Wi-Fi hotspot, and unlike some rival systems, Fuji’s implementation won’t let you remotely control the XP70 from your smartphone or tablet.


Front	Battery Compartment

When the time comes to snap a shot, the XP70 is ready for action in approximately 1.5 seconds and wastes no time in autofocussing. In good light it’s almost instantaneous, although in less optimal conditions expect to wait a couple of seconds for the camera to lock on to your subject. This is fractionally slower than pricier kit like the Olympus TG-3 or Ricoh WG-4 will manage, but the XP70‘s focussing speed and reliability is not far behind.

It’s not keen on getting up close and personal though, as the 9cm minimum focussing distance is disappointing compared to the 1cm macro modes sported by many top-end tough cameras. Even at 9cm the Scene Recognition mode doesn’t always apply macro settings and can require a manual override.

Finally the Fujifilm FinePix XP70’s battery life – or lack thereof – is worth a mention. Fuji rate this at a relatively paltry 210 shots, which looks rather anaemic compared to the 300-shot lifespan of Fuji’s flagship XP200. After a day of testing, our XP70 was running very low on juice, which is hardly ideal for an action-orientated camera that’s likely to spend plenty of time far from the power grid.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 16 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 7Mb.

The XP70’s image quality is initially impressive, with bright, vivid colour reproduction that manages to avoid looking unrealistic. The 16.4MP CMOS sensor delivers decent detail at close range, although distant subjects like landscapes are vulnerable to image smoothing from the camera’s overzealous noise reduction processing.

The flip side of this is relatively low levels of image noise at higher sensitivities. Even at ISO1600 colour speckling is virtually eliminated and though grain is clearly visible, it’s gone once you zoom out to 50% image size. However detail again pays the price, as even when viewed at this size, it’s not hard to spot some painterly smearing.

Things are noticeably improved at ISO800 though, where there’s a better balance between retaining detail whilst allowing some grain and colours are also nice and punchy at this sensitivity. Drop down to ISO400 and the XP70 is in its element, producing fairly low levels of noise. It’s a good job too, as unlike some cameras, the XP70 isn’t averse to capturing at ISO400 and above to help ensure sharp shots.

Dynamic range is less impressive as highlight areas often overexpose in high-contrast scenes as the camera attempts to capture a balanced overall exposure. Activating the HDR mode can help matters, but it doesn’t increase dynamic range as much as some rival cameras achieve.

High contrast scenes also reveal a moderate amount of chromatic aberration and some lens flare when shooting towards the sun. The lens also introduces minor barrel distortion at wide angle, but its corner sharpness is a good match for the centre of frame.

Noise

The XP70 has seven sensitivity settings available at full resolution, ranging between ISO100 and ISO6400. ISO6400 shots are only captured at an 8MP maximum resolution, whilst Auto ISO mode can be capped at ISO400, 800 or 1600.

ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)


ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)


ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)


ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The camera’s 5x optical zoom lens gives you a focal range of 28-140mm (in 35mm-camera terms). It’s not the widest lens on the tough camera market, though Fuji’s optional ACL-XP70 wide-angle lens converter creates an 18mm-equivalent focal length.

28mm	140mm

Sharpening

The Fujifilm FinePix XP70 doesn't have any built-in sharpening tools so if you wish to sharpen the images, you need to use an external editing suite such as Adobe Photoshop. We used the standard sharpen setting in our test using CS4. We found that because of the lack of noise control to smooth out images, sharpening simply made the roughness of the noise that was present even worse. Images appear to be sharp enough anyway.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

File quality

Two JPEG compression options can be selected: Fine or Normal.

16M Fine (7.5Mb) (100% Crop)	16M Normal (3.8Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

Chroma is handled well on the Fujifilm FinePix XP70. We did find traces of it, but it's only mild and at the extreme edges of the frame. It's entirely possible that the noise present on the images could be also breaking up the chroma, in a way, as it breaks up any clean lines.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)	Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The XP70’s macro mode allows you to focus down to 9cm from your subject. It’s close enough to capture plenty of detail, but nowhere near as impressive as the 1cm macro modes offered by some tough cameras.

Macro	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The camera’s built-in flash includes four modes: Auto, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash and Slow Synchro. Red-eye removal can be switched on or off via the main menu.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (28mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (28mm)


Flash Off - Telephoto (140mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (140mm)

In our testing with the XP70 successfully avoided red-eye and the flash produced only minor wide-angle vignetting from a distance of 1.5m.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)


Red Eye Reduction	Red Eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Image Stabilisation

Fujifilm’s Image Stabilisation system does a great job at ironing out the effects of camera shake, although the relatively short zoom reach doesn’t make it as essential as on longer-zoom cameras.

Image Stabilisation On (100% Crop)	Image Stabilisation Off (100% Crop)

Advanced Filters

Fifteen Advanced Filter effects are available and previewed live as you shoot. Choose from Toy Camera, Miniature, Pop Color, High-Key, Low-Key, Dynamic Tone, Fish-Eye, Soft Focus, Cross Screen and Partial Color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple). Check out the example images to see what they do.

Toy Camera	Miniature


Pop COlor	High Key


Low Key	Dynamic Tone


Fish-eye	Soft Focus


Cross Screen	Partial Color

Motion Panorama 360

The camera’s Motion Panorama 360 mode will capture 120°, 180° or 360° pans automatically as you sweep the camera left or right. Results are typical of cameras with similar features and are downsized to around 1100 vertical pixels. Some signs of stitching are visible if you scrutinise, and you can’t pan for less than the minimum 120°. Even when panning smoothly, the system can struggle to capture successfully.

Night

Use this mode to shoot a long exposure of a dimly-lit scene with reduced image noise. This sample shot required a 0.91-second shutter speed at ISO400, so as the mode name suggests, a tripod is a must. Alternatively Fuji’s Pro Low-Light mode lets you ditch the tripod and automatically snaps multiple exposures of a night-time environment and then combines them into a single image with reduced noise.

Night	Night (100% Crop)

HDR & Sunset Modes

HDR mode follows the same principle as the Night (Tripod) setting, capturing multiple exposures and merging them into one shot with increased shadow and highlight detail. This doesn’t always make a significant difference though. The first shot of this sunset is taken in standard Auto mode, and the second image using HDR. The latter has better highlight detail, but it’s a subtle difference. Switching to Sunset mode for the third image gives a very similar result to HDR, though the increased colour saturation arguably gives this image the edge over the HDR shot.

Auto	HDR


Sunset

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Fujifilm FinePix XP70 camera, which were all taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	4
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	4
Value for money	4.5

Effective Pixels	16.4 million pixels
Sensor type	1/2.3-inch CMOS with primary colour filter Total number of pixels: 17.5 million pixels
Storage media	Internal memory (approx. 99MB) SD / SDHC / SDXC memory card ^*1
File format	still image JPEG (Exif Ver 2.3)^*2 (Design rule for Camera File system compliant / DPOF-compatible) movie Movie File Format : MOV Movie Video Compression : H.264 Audio : Linear PCM Monaural
Number of recorded pixels	L : (4:3) 4608 x 3456 / (3:2) 4608 x 3072 / (16:9) 4608 x 2592 / (1:1) 3456 x 3456 M : (4:3) 3264 x 2448 / (3:2) 3264 x 2176 / (16:9) 3264 x 1840 / (1:1) 2432 x 2432 S : (4:3) 2048 x 1536 / (3:2) 2304 x 1536 / (16:9) 1920 x 1080 / (1:1) 1728 x 1728 <Motion Panorama> 360° Vertical : 11520 x 1632 Horizontal : 11520 x 1088 180° Vertical : 5760 x 1632 Horizontal : 5760 x 1088 120° Vertical : 3840 x 1632 Horizontal : 3840 x 1088
	name Fujinon 5x optical zoom lens focal length f=5.0mm - 25.0mm, equivalent to 28 - 140mm on a 35mm format full-aperture F3.9 (Wide) - F4.9 (Telephoto) constitution 13 elements in 11 groups (includes 4 aspherical elements)
Digital zoom	Intelligent digital zoom : approx. 2x (up to approx. 10x, with 5x optical zoom)
Aperture	F3.9 / F6.2 (Wide) F4.9 / F8.0 (Telephoto)
Focus distance (from lens surface)	(from lens surface)
Sensitivity	AUTO / AUTO(400) / AUTO(800) / AUTO(1600) Equivalent to ISO 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600 / 3200 / 6400^(Standard Output Sensitivity) ISO 6400 is effective in image size M or S.
Exposure control	TTL 256-zone metering
Exposure mode	Programmed AE
Shooting modes	Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night, Night (Tripod), Sunset, Snow, Beach, Under water, Under water (Macro), Party, Flower, Text
Image stabilisation	CMOS shift type
Exposure compensation	-2.0EV - +2.0EV 1/3EV step
Shutter speed	(Auto mode) 1/4 sec. to 1/2000 sec., (All other modes) 4 sec. to 1/2000 sec.
Continuous shooting	TOP H : approx. 10 fps max. 10 frames (Size L, M) / max, 20 frames (size S) M : approx. 5.5 fps max. 10 frames (Size L, M) / max, 20 frames (size S) L : approx. 3.3 fps max. 10 frames (Size L, M) / max, 20 frames (size S) SH : approx. 60 fps max. 70 frames (Size S^) S 16:9 only LAST H : approx. 10 fps max. 10 frames (Size L, M) / max, 20 frames (size S) M : approx. 5.5 fps max. 10 frames (Size L, M) / max, 20 frames (size S) L : approx. 3.3 fps max. 10 frames (Size L, M) / max, 20 frames (size S) * Use a card with SD Speed Class with or higher. * The frame rate and the recorded number of frames varies with shooting conditions.
Auto bracketing	-
Focus	mode Single AF / Continuous AF type TTL contrast AF AF frame selection Center / Multi / Tracking
White balance	Automatic scene recognition Preset Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light, Under water
Self timer	Approx. 10 sec. / 2 sec. delay, Group Timer
Flash	Auto flash (i-flash) Effective range : (ISO AUTO) Normal Wide : approx. 70cm - 3.1m / 2.3 ft. - 10.2 ft. Telephoto : approx. 70cm - 2.7m / 2.3 ft. - 8.9 ft. Macro : approx. 30cm - 80cm / 1.0 ft. - 2.6 ft.
Flash modes	Red-eye removal OFF Auto, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro. Red-eye removal ON Red-eye Reduction Auto, Red-eye Reduction & Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Red-eye Reduction & Slow Synchro.
Hot shoe	-
LCD monitor	2.7-inch, approx. 460K-dot, TFT colour LCD monitor, approx. 97% coverage for shooting, 100% for playing back
Movie recording	Full HD 1920 x 1080 60i / 30p HD 1280 x 720 60p 640 x 480 30p with monaural sound, Wind filter. Zoom function can be used. * Use a card with SD Speed Class with Class 10 or higher.
Photography functions	SR AUTO, Program AE, Action camera mode, Pro low-light, HDR, Natural Light & with Flash, High Speed movie(120 / 240 / 380 fps), Advanced Filter for still image : Toy camera / Miniature / Pop colour / High-key / Low-key / Dynamic tone / Soft Focus / Cross Screen / Fish-eye / Partial colour, Advanced filter for movie : Toy camera / Pop colour / High-key / Low-key / Fish-eye / Partial colour, Framing guide, Frame No. memory, Date stamp, Motion panorama360, Automatic LCD brightness adjustment
Playback functions	Multi-frame playback (with microthumbnail), Protect, Resize, Crop, Slide show, Image rotate, Photobook assist, Mark for upload, Erase selected frames, Favorite, Image Search, Movie edit
Other functions	PictBridge, Exif Print, 35 languages selection, Time difference, Silent mode Dustproof : IP6X Waterproof : IPX8 (up to 10.0m, within 120 min.) Anti-shock : Method;MIL-STD-810F-516.5 Fuji's standard;1.5m
Wireless transmitter	standard IEEE 802.11b / g / n (standard wireless protocol) access mode Infrastructure
Wireless functions	Geotagging / Wireless communication (Image transfer) / View & Obtain Images / PC Autosave
Terminal	Video output - Digital interface USB 2.0 High-speed, Micro USB terminal HDMI output HDMI Micro connector (Type D)
Power supply	Li-ion battery NP-45S (included)
Dimensions	104.1mm (W) x 66.5mm (H) x 25.9mm (D) / 4.0 in. (W) x 2.6 in. (H) x 1.0 in. (D) * excluding projections.
Weight	Approx. 179g / 6.3 oz. (including battery and memory card) Approx. 162g / 5.7 oz. (excluding battery and memory card)
Operating temperature	-10°C - +40°C (+14°F - +104°F)
Operating humidity	10% - 80% (no condensation)
Battery life	Approx. 210 frames (AUTO mode) * Fujifilm research based on CIPA standards
Accessories included	Li-ion battery NP-45S AC Power adapter AC-5VT USB cable Hand strap Owner's manual
Optional accessories	Li-ion battery NP-45A Action camera lens ACL-XP70