Fujifilm FinePix XP150 Digital Camera Review

Lens & Sensor

The Fujifilm XP150 is built with an all-internal lens, encased in a glass barrier. The maximum aperture range is pretty narrow, at f/3.9-4.9, though the 5x optical zoom is typical, and it covers a the usual range of 5-25mm (28-140mm equivalent). Since it's stuck in the upper-left corner of the front panel, wandering fingers tend to get in its way.

The XP150 is built around a 14-megapixel, 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor, which are typical specs for tough-cams and point-and-shoots in general this year (give or take a few megapixels).

Display(s)

A $280 tough-cam deserves a better screen than the 2.7-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD that Fuji slapped onto the XP150. It's bright enough to see reasonably well underwater and in direct sunlight, but details are grainy, colors are flat, motion lags, and viewing angles are too shallow.

Flash

The flash is rated for a wimpy 3.5 meters of effectiveness, so it's only really suitable for crude indoor portraits or as a fill flash. It's placed next to the lens, so red-eye will be an issue (though there's a built-in red-eye reduction setting).

Connectivity

Like most cameras circa 2012, the XP150 has two ports: one combined USB/AV hookup, and one HDMI jack (micro-HDMI in this case). Both are behind the double-locking door on the side of the camera.

Battery

The XP150 runs on an NP-50A rechargeable lithium-ion battery, rated for a respectable 300 shots per charge. That figure will drop significantly with GPS activated, but that's the case with any GPS-equipped camera.

Memory

The XP150 records to the usual SD/SDHC/SDXC media cards.