Let’s get snap happy in water – FujiFilm Camera ‘FinePix XP120’

I have never owned a waterproof camera or a FujiFilm camera so this was a challenge and a first for me.  I was thrilled when I was loaned one of their waterproof cameras the FujiFilm FinePix XP120 to test. Why did I get one to test? well that is because I needed a waterproof camera for several events that I was holding for bloggers from the community of Love Pop Ups – London as both are water based events (HotTug UK and Thames Rocket).  So I thought with me a blogger and others what a great way for us to try out and test a Fujifilm camera whilst giving some publicity.  Bear in mind though I usually don’t blog about gadgets I usually blog about restaurant’s, food, events and shows not gadgets.

Fujifilm camera – my first impressions

The cameras look made me smile as the yellow colour gave it character and the shape was fun looking and really beautiful making it so different to any other camera I have ever seen.  It made me think of summer.  Also the colour with it being so vibrant it would be hard to miss in any kind of water. The size of the camera was also great just the perfect size to fit in my hand plus the camera was very light in weight.

Use of camera from taking photos to video footage

I only literally got the camera delivered to me the night before my first water based experience and that was the HotTug UK (for photos see my blog here) and as you can see from the images that I took during the day some are sharp and some are blurred.  As I mentioned earlier this is probably due to me the handler and other users at the event as this was our first time in using the camera ever and the first time for me in using a waterproof camera so we might of not had it on the correct setting.

A sharp and a tad blurry photo (maybe due to movement)

This is quite a good fun photo taken from under water of my friend Steve.

The camera is easy to use and grasp in how to control and change the menu/setting options,  I just wish I have more time to experiment to get the most use out of the camera and learn more what works and what it does do not in certain situations, However the only other downside for me was the buttons on top of the camera.  The one which turns the camera on/off and the one which takes the photo sometimes I ended up clicking the on/off button instead of the button to take a photo.

One week after I went on Thames Rocket (read my blog here) in the evening and used the camera again, mainly the video side of the camera however unfortunately the video quality came out too dark and there was a lot of noise issues but again I don’t know if that was because of me the user not using the right setting, or because of the noise from the music that was blasting out or because I kept moving the camera around a lot and fast.  However when I used the video during the HotTug the video quality was much better as it was taken during the day and the vehicle was much slower at 3 mph and not hitting speeds of 35 mph.

Here is a few sample videos of the footage I took. The first one being is better due to the fact it is not fully dark as yet. The second video is when it was fully night time.

As mentioned the GoBoat video footage was much better though as during the day. See my You Tube video here which consists a mixture of photos and video footage taken with the FinePix XP120 camera.

FujiFilm camera my verdict

With all this said about the camera on the day of the Thames Rocket another blogger who joint my Love Pop Ups London event said her parents have this camera and how great it is and how they and she loves it plus that it has been the best waterproof cameras they have ever owned.  So with that in mind I am sure all the images and video I took and others was down to us in being amateurs.

Would I recommend this camera? I would probably say yes as I loved the size, shape, colour, feel and weight plus it did take some great photos at times and video footage during the day.  So if you do a lot of water activities I would highly recommend this camera.  Here is some tech info on the camera:

5x optical zoom with 28mm* wide-angle setting
16.4 megapixel 1/2.3″-inch BSI-CMOS sensor
New Cinemagraph Mode
Interval shooting & Time-lapse shooting
3-inch 920K-dot LCD monitor
New Wireless Communication