30 Days before we sailed, uh-oh, do we *really* want to use the GoPro 3 to record our time at – and underwater in – Castaway Cay? Probably not. So off to Amazon.com we went. Camera purchased, tried it out, it was… okay. Not awful, but not awesome. And the photos were sub-par.
We ended up defaulting to the GoPro, which was fine. But we were longing for more.
Fast-forward six months post-cruise (and nine months before the next), and waltzing through Costco, a beacon of sunshine! (Literally; the sun through the skylight was nearly that of the hand of the Almighty Vacation Being pointing to a pallet.)
A FujiFilm FinePix XP130 bundle. Camera, floating wrist strap, accessory pack and a 16 GB SD memory card. And priced better than Amazon. Behold!
It’s trickier than I thought to swim with a hat, but I made it work, by the by.
This little gem is available at Costco warehouses (item 9000130) and Costco.com.currently around $179.99. (As of this writing, it’s $179 on Amazon, so a crazy good deal is to be had in several forums.)
In terms of features, you can take photos and videos as you’d expect, and if you’re filming a video, you can also press the camera button and take a still photo while the recording is still rolling – handy!
Yes, like some reviewers have commented elsewhere, the wireless/Bluetooth connectivity is not ideal; it works about half the time. 50% beats nothing, but if you simply MUST get that photo off to post to your social media account, it will happen. It just may not be flawless. (Selfishly, I want a camera, I don’t need a five-function widget when I’d prefer it to do one thing really well: and photos and video is its sweet spot.)
Just for grins, I wanted to see how well it went from above- to below-water, so I jumped in. I didn’t see any re-focus delay or blur-out, beyond the obvious of the bubbles when we hit the water:
All told, a solid little camera that I’d recommend – and we’re taking on the next cruise. (The parents, our travel buddies on the next one, have also picked one up.) And just for redundancy, yes, the GoPro will be in the bag… but won’t be the go-to camera next time we set sail.
