Fujifilm FinePix XP30 review

Then again, motion blur was the least of this camera’s image quality woes. The lens’s focus was atrocious towards the edges of frames at wide-angle and medium focal lengths. The centre of frame was better, as were the edges of telephoto shots, but even there, focus was much softer than it should be. The lens also exhibited barrel distortion at wide-angle positions and pincushion distortion in telephoto shots. The final insult was swathes of noise from the 14-megapixel sensor, producing grubby-looking shadows at ISO 100, multi-coloured blotches at ISO 400 and psychedelic snowstorms by ISO 1600.

That’s a real shame, as we really wanted to like this camera with its smart, rugged design, excellent GPS tagging and low price. Image quality is beyond redemption, though. Those who like the concept are better off living without GPS and going for the Olympus TG-310, or saving up for the Panasonic FT3 – we’ll be publishing our review of that camera soon.