Fuji XP80 Point-and-Shoot Underwater Camera
by Dan Wagner
Photo © Dan Wagner 2023
Whether you’re a novice, or a seasoned photographer, the whole purpose of carrying a point-and-shoot camera is convenience. You want a small, simple-to-use, worry-free camera, that’s good in most conditions, inexpensive, and that most of all takes reasonably good photographs. To address these desires, FujiFilm created the FinePix XP series digital cameras. These cameras are small, lightweight, waterproof, shockproof, weatherproof, simple, and capable of shooting stills and video.
Although discontinued, I chose to review the XP80 camera because it shares most of the features of the current XP lineup, and can be found on eBay for fifty dollars or less. To put the camera through its paces, I took it on several kayaking outings. For me, the best thing about the camera was that it fit inside the small pocket on my life vest. So whenever I wanted to take a photo, I simply grabbed the camera by the wrist strap, tapped the power-on button, framed the image with the camera’s 28-140mm zoom lens, and shot.
Included with the Fuji FinePix XP80:
NP-45S rechargeable lithium-ion battery
AC power adapter AC-5VT
USB cable
Wrist strap
The XP80’s 16.4MP 1/2.3” sensor takes high or low-resolution still images, or full HD 1920 x 1080 video at 60 fps and high-speed lower resolution video at up to 320 fps. Following the adage, keep it simple stupid, I generally keep the camera set to shoot on auto white balance, auto ISO, silent mode (to avoid the annoying beeps), face detection auto-focusing, standard shooting modes, and the highest resolutions. Of course, there are occasions when I have the inclination and time to delve deeper into the menu choices, which are fairly robust for a simple point-and-shoot camera.
Popular with many shooters, is the XP80’s advanced filter effects menu. Its effects include a Toy Camera filter that produces a retro toy camera look, Miniature filter for blurred tops and bottoms, Pop Color to create high-contrast saturated images, fisheye, soft-focus, cross screen stars, sketch, partial color in red/orange/yellow/green/blue/purple, and more. The drawback to using these effects is that they can look gimmicky. Plus, in general, it makes more sense to achieve these effects in Photoshop.
One huge shortcoming of the XP80 is that unless you spend additional time fiddling with the settings, images often come out flat and lackluster. In fact, there were few if any images that didn’t require Photoshop adjustments. That’s the trade-off of enjoying the convenience of a point-and-shoot camera, which, for me was just fine. Less fine, was the absence of a raw shooting mode. Another annoyance was the lack of an easy-to-use-on-the-fly exposure compensation button. In addition, exposure compensation can only be adjusted when shooting in Program mode. Compounding this deficiency was the difficulty of getting properly exposed backlit photographs of people in other shooting modes.
The proof, as they say, is in the pudding, and with a little practice I was able to achieve the results I was hoping for. Unlike shooting with a pricey iPhone, I found not having to worry about the camera to be a huge bonus. In addition, its battery life was excellent.
FujiFilm FinePix XP80 Series Owner’s Manual
A few other things to keep in mind when using Fuji’s XP-series, is that like an iPhone and other cameras without viewfinders, viewing the screen in sunlight is often very difficult—especially if you don’t lightly depress the shutter button to activate maximum screen brightness. Overall, I’m glad I have an XP80, and most likely will upgrade to a newer model that I hope will offer raw shooting in the future.
Video © The Fuji Guys 2020 - FinePix XP80 Review
Additional Specs:
File Format: Jpeg
Aspect Ratios: 1:1, 3:2, 4:3, 16:9
Aperture: f/3.2 to f/8
ISO: Auto, 100-12800
Shutter Speed: 1/2000 to ¼ second in auto mode
Minimum focusing distance 3.28’ tele / 3.54’ wide
Memory Card: SD/SDHC/SDXC
Weight: 7.3 oz with battery and memory card
Dimensions: 4.3 x 2.8 x 1.1"
Connectivity: HDMI D (Micro), USB Micro-B (2.0)
Additional Features:
Self-timer
Interval timer shooting
Built-in flash with red-eye reduction
Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
Optical image stabilization
Underwater and macro modes
HDR high dynamic range shooting
Panorama shooting
Action camera mode
Water-repellent lens coating
I hope this information will make your point-and-shoot outdoor camera adventures easier and more successful. Thanks for visiting The Cranky Camera!