Fujifilm FinePix XP90 Review - Chose The Best Digital DSLR Cameras

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Introduction

The FinePix XP90 replaces last year’s XP80 to become FujiFilm’s flagship (and since the discontinuation of the XP200, only) toughened and waterproof compact camera.

As is often the way with new compact cameras, the XP90 isn’t actually all that new. It boasts identical toughness credentials to the XP80, being waterproof to 15m/50ft, shockproof to a height of 1.75m/5.8ft, freezeproof to -10°C/-14°F, as well as dustproof.

Much of what’s underneath the toughened exterior is also carried over from the XP80, so the new camera gets the same 16.4 million pixel 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor, paired with a sealed 5x optical zoom lens giving a focal range equivalent to 28-140mm. The lens also retains optical image stabilisation.

The only significant improvement made to the Fujifilm FinePix XP90 is a new 3-inch, 920k-dot LCD screen. Its extra features have been seen before on the XP80, but they are fairly extensive. You get Wi-Fi connectivity for remote camera control and easy image sharing, plus an interval timer for shooting time-lapse sequences. Full HD video capture is also available, as is high frame rate video recording.

The Fujifilm FinePix XP90 can be had for around £149/$179, undercutting the cost of rival toughened cameras like the Canon PowerShot D30, Nikon Coolpix AW130, Olympus Tough TG-4 and Ricoh WG-30.

Ease of Use

Apart from some minor styling tweaks, the Fujifilm FinePix XP90 follows the outgoing XP80’s outward appearance. It’s unashamedly plastic, though the build quality is high and there’s no flex or obvious weak points. The only slight issue if we’re nit-picking is the prominent lens bulge, which is a magnet for chips and scratches if the camera is dropped. The XP90’s ergonomics are also hard to fault, with a good sized front finger grip and a textured thumb rest on the back. Even the shutter release is textured so it’s easier to press when underwater, however the video and playback buttons are very small and the latter is especially tricky to press when wearing gloves.

At 109.6mm x 71mm x 27.8mm, the XP90 isn’t exactly svelte, but its chunky size is great when you’re in the thick of the action or under water, and the 203g ready-to-shoot weight is reasonable for a toughened compact. A single door covers the battery and memory card slots, and it’s secured by a rotating dial lock and safety button. Some waterproof cameras use two separate catches instead, but Fujifilm’s locking system is marginally more convenient while still protecting the flap from being opened accidentally.

The Fujifilm FinePix XP90’s control layout is much the same as the XP80, with the rear panel being especially similar, though there’s a more noticeable difference when you power the camera up. The XP80’s 2.7-inch, 460k-dot LCD screen has been replaced by a 3-inch, 920k-dot device for a crisper viewing experience. The new display also boasts superb viewing angles, while brightness is high enough to maintain easy visibility under direct sunlight. The only thing missing is touch sensitivity, but that’s not really surprising as capacitive touch screens won’t work properly when wet.

Front of the Fujifilm FinePix XP90

The increased screen resolution helps display Fujifilm’s clear menu interface at its best. This is split into two tabs: a shooting menu spread over three pages, and a set-up menu covering five pages. With so many pages of camera options, it isn’t easy to remember where to find any one setting. Splitting the camera’s settings into additional categories would make for faster, more logical camera control. It’s also a pity that there isn’t a separate menu containing frequently used camera settings to avoid entering the main menu for almost every function change.

Alongside the new screen there are two buttons for controlling the XP90’s 5x optical zoom, which is unchanged from the XP80 and provides an acceptable – though not particularly wide – 28mm-equivalent maximum wide angle focal length. As with many waterproof cameras, the zoom button feel quite vague and spongey, though they function fine. The directional pad on the rear panel doubles as controls for the flash, macro focussing, self-timer and exposure compensation. The latter enables +/-2EV of exposure control, while the self-timer features 10 or 2-second delays, plus a group timer option, and then there’s that interval timer.

Rear of the Fujifilm FinePix XP90

The interval timer allows you to set the Fujifilm FinePix XP90 to record images over a duration of up to six hours, with shots fired every 3, 5, or 10 seconds, up to a minimum frequency of 10-minute intervals. It’s a useful feature for shooting time-lapse sequences, and if you select the Time-Lapse Movie option from the main menu, the XP90 will convert the recorded images into a video with a resolution of up to 1920×1080 and a frame rate of 60, 30, or 10fps. The only drawback is the XP90’s NP-45S rechargeable Li-ion battery, which is carried over from the XP80 and is rated for the same 210 shots per charge. That won’t be enough to power lengthier time lapse sequences, and it’s not really enough for normal shooting, especially when compared with the Nikon Coolpix AW130 that’ll manage 370 shots per charge.

Back to the XP90’s controls and you’ll notice that there’s no mode button. There are in fact 22 different shooting modes, but you’ll need to access them via the Menu button on the rear panel, which reveals the shooting modes as the first menu option. The default Scene Recognition Auto mode is accompanied by a plain Auto mode that functions almost identically, as well as a Programmable auto mode where you can set options like ISO sensitivity, white balance, and autofocus mode (centre, multi-point and tracking modes are on offer).

Top of the Fujifilm FinePix XP90

The mode menu also contains the usual selection of scene modes, but more interestingly you get a multi-shot HDR setting, as well as a sweep panorama mode and three different night scene options (see the Image Quality section for examples). Underwater and Underwater Macro modes are also present, helping to remove any colour casts when shooting at the deeper end of the camera’s 15-metre depth rating.

The last button of interest on the Fujifilm FinePix XP90 is the Wi-Fi button at the bottom of the rear panel. By downloading the Fuji Camera Remote app – available for iOS and Android – you can remotely control the XP90 and transfer photos from it to your smart device. The system lets you download a full resolution photo in around five seconds, and it boasts a decent amount of remote control options. You can zoom at two speeds with almost no signal lag, as well as remotely control self-timer and flash options. The app will also let you switch between stills and video shooting. The only niggles are a lack of NFC pairing, and some slight lag between pressing the remote shutter release and the XP90 actually capturing a shot.

The Fujifilm FinePix XP90 In-hand

During conventional shooting, the Wi-Fi button instead activates the XP90’s burst capture mode. At full resolution, the XP90 can shoot at up to 10fps for a 10 frame burst, or it’ll capture 70 frames at up to 60fps if you drop the image size to Small, Widescreen (1920×1080). However, in both cases you still get only around one second of capture time. If that’s not long enough, the XP90’s will shoot a 30-second burst of video at 120fps at 640×480 resolution, or 240fps at 320×240, and it maxes out at 320fps, albeit at a tiny and virtually unusable 160×120 resolution.

The Fujifilm FinePix XP90 powers up almost instantly, though you’ll need to wait two seconds before a shot can be captured. Autofocussing in good light isn’t quite instantaneous, but it’s nippy enough and also reliable. However when things get dim there’s some noticeable focussing delay, and the camera often fails to focus, especially in night-time conditions.

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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.

It’s little surprise that with its aging sensor and image processor, the Fujifilm FinePix XP90 doesn’t produce eye-popping image quality. Even in optimal daytime conditions detail is lacking and fine landscape foliage is smeared to a greater extent than we’d expect from a 1/2.3-inch sensor. In fact it’s only the physical image dimensions that give away the sensor’s megapixel count, as in terms of detail levels, shots look as though they’ve been captured at 8-12MP and simply enlarged to 16MP.

Fortunately the XP90’s punchy colour reproduction and generally accurate exposure metering help it record shots that are initially acceptable to the eye. But again, look more closely and the mediocre dynamic range manifests itself with murky shadow detail and some blown-out highlights.

High ISO performance is nothing special, either. Grain is clearly visible at ISO 800, further softening fine detail. ISO 1600 images look acceptable at 50% image size, but zoom in and there’s little – if any – extra detail revealed, thanks to aggressive noise reduction processing. The extent of noise in ISO 3200 shots makes them only suitable for 6×4 prints or social media sharing. ISO 6400 is as good as useless, as despite this sensitivity being limited to 8MP, the camera still can’t hide the dreadful dynamic range, muted colour and dismal detail levels.

While the Fujifilm FinePix XP90’s sensor doesn’t impress, it’s 5x zoom lens does a much better job. Corner sharpness is a close match for the centre of frame, and although fringing is visible on very high contrast boundaries, it’s nothing intrusive. The lens’ optical image stabilisation also performs very well, helping to keep shots sharp at maximum zoom and in most shooting conditions.

Noise

The Fujifilm FinePix XP90 has seven sensitivity settings ranging from ISO 100 to 6400 at full. However, the maximum ISO 6400 sensitivity is only recorded at 8MP/3264×2448 resolution

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 Fujifilm FinePix XP90’s 5x zoom lens achieves a maximum wide-angle focal length equivalent to 28mm, and can zoom in to 140mm (in 35mm-camera terms).

28mm	140mm

File Quality

Shooting the Fujifilm FinePix XP90 at its maximum 16MP resolution with Fine jpeg quality produces images around 7-8MB in size. Switching to Normal quality at the same resolution roughly halves the file size.

16M Fine (8.38Mb) (100% Crop)	16M Normal (3.62Mb) (100% Crop)

Macro

The Fujifilm FinePix XP90’s lens will focus as close as 9cm from your subject, and does so reliably. However, cameras like the Nikon Coolpix AW130 and Olympus TG-4 both boast 1cm macro focussing.

Flash

When shooting a white surface from a distance of 1.5m, the Fujifilm FinePix XP90’s flash produces noticeable vignetting with the lens at maximum wide angle, though fall-off is much less severe when you use longer focal lengths. Red-eye is also just about visible when firing the flash without red-eye reduction enabled, and even with the system activated, red-eye isn’t successfully eliminated.

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


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

In our testing with the XP90 successfully avoided red-eye and the flash produced only minor wide-angle vignetting from a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off	Flash On (100% Crop)


Flash – Redeye	Flash – Redeye (100% Crop)

Night Modes

You get four different ways of capturing night scenes with the Fujifilm FinePix XP90. In the default Scene Recognition Auto mode, night images are murky, underexposed and lack detail. Pro Low Light mode aims to improve things by capturing multiple exposures and merging them into a sharper 8MP image with better dynamic range, but our testing produced similarly disappointing results to using the default Auto mode. Switching to Night mode produced marginally better image quality with slightly higher sharpness, but for acceptable night-time results, your best option by far is to switch to Night Tripod mode and shoot a long exposure anchored by a tripod.

Scene Recognition Auto Mode	Pro Low Light Mode


Night Mode	Night Tripod Mode

Image Stabilisation

Although not perfectly sharp, the Fujifilm FinePix XP90’s image stabilisation has performed well to keep this 1/8th-second exposure useable. With stabilisation disabled and a marginally quicker 1/9th-second shutter speed, even a very steady hand couldn’t keep the same shot anything like as sharp.

Off	On

Advanced Filters

The Fujifilm FinePix XP90 offers eleven filter effects, all of which are previewed live and recorded at full resolution. Your options are: Toy Camera, Miniature, Pop Color, High Key, Low Key, Dynamic Tone, Fish-eye, Soft Focus, Cross Screen, Sketch, and Partial Color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple).

Toy Camera	Miniature


Pop COlor	High Key


Low Key	Dynamic Tone


Fish-eye	Soft Focus


Cross Screen	Sketch


Partial Color

HDR

The Fujifilm FinePix XP90’s HDR mode provides a useful boost in dynamic range, although it could go further still without shoots looking over processed.

Off	On

Panorama

Motion Panorama mode has 120, 180 and 360-degree pan options. Whichever you choose, images are recorded with a vertical resolution of 1088 pixels. That’s not exactly high, and the Fujifilm FinePix XP90’s panoramas also display small areas of stitching ghosting.