Fujifilm FinePix F40fd

This a great camera among a field of choices from other manufacturers like Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Olympus and Casio. The Fuji has a number of unique features that set it apart from this field, the CCD size being one of the main features. Fuji uses a 1/1.6 Super HR CCD which is the largest CCD in the field. The only others that come close (and they are not Super HR) is the Canon SD900 at 1/1.8 (this is 10 MP) and then Casio at 1/1.75 (also 10 MP). If you do the math you will discover that the Fuji's CCD is the largest and this provides you with sensational pictures with fine detail and richly saturated natural colors and there was no detectable difference with the number of megapixels. I had occasion to compare both the Fuji and the Canon SD900 and the differences in the photos was quite noticeable. They both produced great results, but when I compared the pictures together, the Fuji produced a much better photo with more accurate color rendition and better contrast (particularly in low light conditions). The Canon was also $100 more (it does have a titanium case and 10 MP), slightly thicker and no battery life indicator. Some of the other features are SD card AND xD card capability, it can take a flash and no flash picture at the same time, face detecction focusing (which worked faster and more accurately than the Canon SD900), fast start-up and a plethora of scene modes from which to choose. I found mine at Costco for $269.99 and I'm quite happy with it.

The camera takes great photos, in almost any lighting condition. I did not get a chance to play with the face detection since I returned it as soon as I discovered that you could not shoot with aperture or shutter priorities. I think Fuji really dropped the ball since the previous version the F30 and F31fd both have this ability.

If you want to take great snap shots and have no intention to do any interesting photography, this is the camera for you.

If like me and desire the ability to do more "artistic" photos with effects like blurred backgrounds with a sharp subject, or waterfalls with beautiful motion streaking; you have to look elsewhere. I would strongly recommend the F31fd Fujifilm Finepix F31fd 6.3MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom. The draw back is 6MP vs 8MP while this is 25% fewer pixels it is only 13% lower vertical and horizontal resolution. The added flexibility more than makes up for the fewer pixels.

A side note: I did not test this, but I suspect the F31fd may have better low light ability since it has few pixels per mm of sensor. This is generally true, but I did not notice the difference and did not test it before sending the camera back.

When I was looking to get a new Point and Shoot digital camera I went into the store looking for a Fuji F30/F31 for its manual controls, low light and seemingly infinite battery life. They didn't have the F31 but the salesman convinced me to get the F40fd instead. So far I would have to say "wow" this is an amazing little camera. From standards of performance its not quite an SLR of the 6-8mp generation but its closer to those than other PNS.

Over a year ago I bought an Olympus Stylus 720SW. Amazingly durable, can go where other cameras fear to tread but I was not impressed with its other aspects. It still had three shortcomings of other PNS cameras I've used. Slow, low light issues and poor battery life. I could live with that for fact that you can go swimming with it. But for those times when a dip in the pool wasn't on the agenda but the SLR was overkill I wanted something more. So that left me going home from the camera store with the Fuji.

Overview
Its got tech specs out the wazoo, so lets focus on the highlights. Its an 8 mp camera, you can reduce image size to 4mp and .3MP (VGA). At the 8MP setting it has two compression settings for its JPGS, the higher setting (more compression, more pictures) seems just fine. That gives you somewhere in the neighborhood of 500/shots per Gig of card space.

Its got a number of different shooting modes, most of them access from a command wheel in the upper right hand corner. There is a lot here to choose from and its nice because it mostly eliminates the need to go menu diving to get what you want.

So lets take a trip around the dial. It starts with Auto which is the classic don't think, just shoot. It has the "image stabilization" mode which is just and ISO boost. It decreases shutter speed but at a cost of picture quality.

Then there is the Natural Light function. This is nice because it's a quick means of turning off the flash and bumping up the ISO to the appropriate levels that you would have to do to get a good ambient light photo.

Then there is SP1, SP2 which are similar to the "scene" modes found on other cameras. Once you've got into SP1/2 you'll do a little menu diving to get the "scene" you want (night shot/landscape/fireworks etc). But once its done it remembers and with two SP settings you can switch back and forth between them.

Then there is the natural light with flash. I cute feature takes two shots in rapid succession, one with flash one without. Not sure if it looks better with flash or ambient? Use this and take both.

Then there is the "Manual" setting. On this you can set your ISO and white balance to fine tune your look if you know what your doing.

There is the Movie mode 640x480 at 30FPS. Eats a Gig in about 15 minutes, it's a .AVI file. Can't zoom while shooting the movie. Decent quality though.

Other controls include the play button and the usual 4 way rocker pad. There is also the "Fuji" button that gives you access to the a couple of controls in manual mode as well as the "IRSimple" which lets you exchange data via IR with other equipped Fuji cameras. Maybe in camera photo sharing is big in Japan but it left me asking "why".

UPDATE- My mom got a Fuji F40FD, so I got to try out the IRSimple Mode. You put both cameras in that mode, set one to send, one to receive and they transfer a picture in a second or two. PRetty quick and easy. However it only works ONE picture at a time and doesn't work for movies. So much for sharing your photos instantly after the trip..It is what it is, I don't find it very useful though.

There is a button to enable/disable face detection. Kind of cool feature, it detects faces and locks onto them as the focal point. When it works it looks like you've locked a missile onto your target. It works ok as long as there pretty much looking straight at you. Off angle it isn't much help.

Finally there is a disp button that controls what info goes up on the LCD and a few other things.

Overall the controls seem reasonably well laid out, a lot of real estate goes to some not commonly used functions but the command wheel makes up for it.

The F40fd can take either XD memory cards or SD memory cards. That's great because XD is proprietary format used by Fuji/Olympus and it sucks compared to other formats (its slow and expensive). But there is a gotcha. It can only handle SD cards up to 2 gigs in size. Still an SD card is half to 2/3 the cost of an XD. I still use XD because of my Olympus. I use a Type M 2G card and it works fine, full video, no hangups.

UPDATE 2-15-08
Fuji released a firmware update (1.01) which will presuambly ship with all new units. It allows you to use SDHC cards up to 4G in size. So you can now use XD (2g tops) SD (2g tops) or SDHC (4g tops)

The screen (2.5 inch LCD) is really nice. Its got excellent off angle viewing. You can be off to the side and still frame your shot. The pictures look in play mode. One gripe with that is that the zoom in play mode (where you zoom up to see detail) is rather slow.

Ok, enough of that, how does it shoot. For a point and shoot its amazing. To be fair I shoot most of my stuff with a Nikon D-70 and I have not extensively used with current generation Nikon/Canon PNS cameras. But from what I have seen the Fuji is in another class.

One of the dreaded features of a PNS camera is the shutter lag. You push the button and then wait, and wait, and wait for it to take the picture. By then the kids moved and the shot is wasted. The Fuji is a LOT faster than others I've used. Not quite SLR speed but in the same neighborhood. It very quickly focuses (or not). The AF system is reasonably accurate. Its not perfect, expect some out of focus shots, but with the faster speed you'll have a higher % of keepers. Switching to the continuous autofocus may help, haven't tried that yet. But the speed is amazing for that class of camera.

Another big claim to fame for this is its ablility to handle low(er) light conditions than others of its class. It does this by increasing the ISO. This makes the sensor more sensitive but also adds "noise" which degrades image quality. The Fuji can go from ISO 100 to ISO 2000. ISO 2000 is insane for little cameras. Of course just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Generally speaking its pretty good up to ISO 800. 100-200-400 are fine, no real gripes in image quality. I've seen some ISO 100-200 images that are "wow" quality. Sharp, smooth and looking as good as they would have out of my SLR. ISO 400 for the most part is pretty good, if you look you'll find flaws but not at a glance. ISO 800 is Ok. When used in combination with the flash (which it does frequently) they look great. By themselves in natural light things can start to de-rez. At ISO 1600 things start to fall apart. A good chunk of those images are "well I guess its better than nothing". At ISO 2000 it falls off a cliff. They suck. Its an image.

Something unique (that I've seen) to the Fuji is the character of the noise. Normally noise looks like TV static that congeals into ugly blotches. The noise on the Fuji is different. When the noise builds its like the picture De-rezzes into some impressionistic watercolor. Its more of a dithering pattern than static. It some ways it makes the image more pleasing (or rather less objectionable) but it also makes the image softer, faster.

Still for a camera of this class the ISO performance is phenomenal. Most PNS cameras are pretty ugly at ISO 400.

So to recap

Pro's-
Fast - Fasted picture taker I've ever seen in this class
Good Low Light - Best in class performance
Image Quality - A cut above what I'd expect
Battery Life - Rated at 300, I got about 350 with a lot of playing around.

Cons -
Image stabilization - Really just an ISO boost, costs quality, doesn't help when your already at high ISO.
Slow Zoom in Playback mode - No real biggie


Conclusion-
This is a GREAT point and shoot camera. Its got a lot going for it and no serious issues for a camera of this class. It really is an advancement in terms of speed and image quality at a very reasonable price. If your looking for a something to capture life's little moments this is an excellent choice.

The Fujifilm Finepix F40fd (F45fd) is the fastest low light P&S camera I can buy at this time (Nov 20,2007). Before I review, let me say a THANK YOU, to all who do post their reviews, because I have read them ALL, and a really big THANK YOU to Steves-Digicams and the CNET staff, who test and provide shutter speeds with flash. Since October I have been researching to find the fastest (for fast moving small kids) low light (for evening indoor pictures) P&S camera. I also know 99.9% of my prints will be 4x6 or 5x7, never bigger. And I want the red-eye reduction to work! I refuse to do touch-ups.

I have visited all local stores (BestBuy, CircuitCity, Target, Sears, Frys, Wolf, Office Depot & Max, Staples) multi-times to play with all cameras. Yes, I am retired and have the time. Plus I reviewed all CNET P&S reviews from 1/25/07 to 11/15/07. I documented speeds of low contrast shutter and shot 2 shot with flash. From my research, the final candidates, based on low light speeds, were Fuji F40fd, Canon SD 800, 850, 870(*).
* Interesting the Canon SD870 specs say it should be as fast as the 850, but comparing 850 vs 870 under store lights, at 2 different BB stores, the 850s were noticeable faster. I even had the salesperson swap the batteries, between the two, just to be sure.

I purchased the Fuji F45fd and Canon SD850(later returned). I borrowed a CanonSD800 and had my Canon A610. Without question the Fuji was the fastest for evening indoors pictures. The Fuji was also the fastest for flash recharge. The Canons 800 & 850 did missed some small kids indoors action shots. All cameras had the same brand 2Gb 150x SD. After a week I printed all the shots, as 4x6s, from the same store, as different orders with different names, to ensure no pictures were mixed.

The Canon SD800 had too many red-eyes. My old A610 was to slow for evening indoor shots. For outdoor daylight shots, all 4 cameras had the same speed results.

Overall the 4x6s quality was the same between the Fuji F45 & Canon SD850. Comparing two very similar pictures, sometimes one would be a slight plus over the other, when you looked close up, then on another picture the other camera would be a slight better, but no real difference. The Fuji was set to 4M(2304x1728 pixels) A5 size, approx. 980Kb files. The Canon SD850 was set to M2(2048x1536 pixles) A5 size, with medium(fine) compression, approx. 893Kb files.

The Canons do have a better long range zoom, at MAX zoom. If your need is for enlarge crops, the Canon AUTO pictures are taken at lower ISO, then the Fuji, see comparison below. I also tested the Canon SD850 with different ISOs in low light conditions. It was at the manual ISO 1600, that the Canon was as fast as the Fuji AUTO(ISO800), but the Canon(1600) pictures had higher noise.

Here are the ISO results, taken with AUTO mode. I believe this to be very important to understand the results. The listed numbers will first be Fuji F40(F45) then Canon SD850.
AUTO mode:
Evening indoors F@800, C@200
Outdoors 10pm Christmas Lights F@800, C@250
Outdoors bright sun, at min zoom F@100, C@80
Outdoors bright sun, at max zoom F@100, C@160
Outdoors cloudy F@200, C@80

Conclusion:
NO one camera is perfect for all people or all conditions!!!!!
Fuji F40/F45 is for those who want a fast, low light, small simple P&S camera, whose prints will usually be normal size(4x6,5x7). It is the BEST P&S available today, to capture fast moving kids indoors. I also appreciate the battery indicator.

Canon SD850 is a great P&S choice for more outdoors(vs indoors) or indoor adults (vs kids) pictures, or if you usually print pictures bigger then normal size.

Many people who gave negative reviews on this camera have unrealistic expectations - this is a $190 camera which will NOT perform miracles under dim light situation without flash. Its DOES NOT have wide angle, IS, manual mode, or super zoom. However, it is compact and takes very sharp, colorful, and detailed pictures with usable ISO up to 800. It also takes excellent MACRO shots. It will give you better pictures than most other $190 cameras on the market as long as you learn how to use this camera and know its limitations.

PROS
- Takes colorful, very sharp, and detailed pictures - if your picture is not sharp you probably have a defective camera.
- Fast focus with minimal shutter lag
- Usable ISO up to 800 - at ISO 800 it beats most of the small compact cameras on the market except Fuji's own F20/30/31FD.
- ISO 1600 and ISO 2000 are reserved for emergency use only but I have a few shots that are usable even at those ISO settings
- Takes EXCELLENT macro shots, even with flash - I have not found any Canon that can take flash macro as good as this one. Great for taking pictures for Ebay.
- Beautiful 2.5 inch high resolution LCD, usable even under bright sunny days.
- In contrast to some other reviewers, for me the Face Detection works very well and really optimizes the exposure on human faces (not animals)
- Compact in size yet easy to hold steady with two hands, unlike some smaller SONY cameras I have tried.

CONS
- No real image stabilization (IS) - then again there are many cameras under $200 do not have IS either. Fortunately this camera is easy to hold steady.
- DO NOT TRUST THE AUTO MODE - it has the tendency to push ISO past ISO800, resulting in noisy shots. Instead, use the M mode, set Auto ISO at 400 or 800, picture quality at 8MP FINE. Or use the PORTRAIT mode which automatically sets Auto ISO at 400.
- Little slow writing to SD card.
- Limits to 2 pictures continuously
- Some tendency to underexpose at times - learn to dial +1/3 exposure compensation at times
- No live histogram
- Some very faint noise at low ISO especially when you blow up the picture to view at 1:1 pixel level - then again why would you want to view your picture at pixel level anyway?

Overall, for the price of $190 this is a very good camera especially for social settings because of its face detection optimizes exposure to human faces - for optimal result use the M mode and set Auto ISO at 400 or 800 or just use the Portrait Mode (Auto ISO 400). Finally, set picture quality at 8MP FINE.