It's summertime and the living is easy, so what you want when you're going on holiday is a camera that's going to cope with all the rough and tumble that a typical beach vacation is likely to throw at you. Fujifilm's FinePix XP10 is intended to be just that rugged fun-time companion, but does it really match up to all the hype?

If you want your camera to look cool, then it certainly has style with its asymmetrical sloping curves, striking metallic blue, black or silver casing and massive XP logo on the front. It feels reassuringly solid in the hand yet its compact dimensions (95.6 x 63.8 x 23.2mm and 135g weight) mean that the XP10 will slip into a back pocket or swimming shorts without difficulty.

Why mention swimming shorts? Well, the main selling point for this camera is its list of rugged credentials. You can take it into the ocean to a depth of three metres, drop it on the floor from a height of one metre, drag it through the snow to -10 degrees and marvel as dust refuses to settle upon it. So we plunged it into the bottom of a fish tank, moved it in with the frozen peas, bounced it off the (admittedly padded) carpet and emptied the vacuum cleaner contents on top of it and still the XP10 continued to function as normal. The fish were traumatised, though.

Now, while the camera does have a certain chic appeal, there are design issues that raise serious questions. For instance, why have the lens so high up in the left corner where it's more likely that your finger will stray into shot? Why have the USB connector squeezed into the battery/SD compartment when it could have been housed on the side? Why put the tripod mount bottom left and why make the zoom control buttons so jerky?

These exterior issues aside, you are provided with 12-megapixel resolution for detailed snaps and the Fujinon 5x zoom lens (36-180mm equivalent) operates from within the camera body for added protection. The LCD display is slightly smaller than average at 2.7-inch but the 230,000 pixels ensure the preview images are bright and vivid and you can cram up to 100 thumbnail images into the frame ready for playback.

You can record 720p HD video at 30fps and, as is becoming increasingly popular in the compact market, there's a dedicated instant video button on the back. The menus are clear and easy to scroll through using the D-pad, and as well as the usual Face Detection, Scene Recognition and Digital Image Stabilisation features, Fuji has thrown in some intriguing new elements.

These include Easy Web Upload which first tags your photos and videos and then uploads them to Facebook and YouTube via the supplied software, Target Focus for tracking moving objects, and in-camera Movie Editing which can turn your holiday images into black & white or sepia.

Picture quality varied: the best results were underwater and outside in relatively bright conditions. The performance was far less impressive in dim conditions, even with ISO levels up to 1600, with similarly uneven flash images. There's a fair amount of zoom noise and the AF often took a while to settle in indoor locations. Yet as holiday cameras go, this will undoubtedly prove popular with outdoor sports fans, especially as Jessops is currently doing a promotion on it at a reduced price of £129.

Verdict
When you pack your suntan lotion and surf board, the FinePix XP10 will make an admirable accessory as a tough, hard-wearing outdoor camera that takes reasonably good quality snaps despite some minor design flaws.

Company: FujiFilm

Contact: 0844 553 2322

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