Desmolicious wrote:
I would NOT take it underwater! It was designed - as the name suggests - to photograph work sites and as such was made weather resistant. So it is fine in rain.
I’d pick the pano version given the cameras are in equal condition, but I’d definitely get the standard version if it is in better shape.
This camera has a huge viewfinder which is very nice to use, and it only turns off if you turn it off. I really like that as it means it is always ready to shoot.
The specs say it is rated to 1 meter under water although I'm not willing to test that on mine. I have taken it out (and taken photos) during a downpour and it was fine, and the manual says if you get sand or salt water on it you can just clean it under a faucet.
I actually have the original owner's manual; it came with mine. It's all in Japanese, as this camera was never sold outside Japan (although all the writing on the camera itself is in English, including the funny "For Use During Construction" text on the back of the non-panorama version). Maybe Fuji planned to eventually sell this camera internationally, or maybe it was considered cool/macho among their target buyers to have everything on your camera written in English.
I used Google Translate to translate some of the manual to understand some key bits like the backlight compensation: it applies a +2 EV compensation when you select that option. It also warned me when I focused on the backlit plant in my photo above: the red "flash necessary" light blinked rapidly, which I'd never seen before. The flash didn't actually fire; the camera just overexposed by 2 stops.
As far as I can tell, turning the camera off is only to prevent accidental photos if the shutter button happens to get hit while in your bag. I've forgotten to turn mine off for a week or two and the battery still reads full. And the display is always on even when the camera is turned off, so it is always consuming a tiny bit of power. I've taken over 200 photos with this camera so far and the battery indicator is still at 100%.