Fujifilm FinePix F40fd

Viewfinder (0.0)
There isn’t an optical viewfinder on the F40fd, but the LCD screen makes a fine viewing device anyway. It measures 2.5 inches diagonally and has 230,000 pixels of resolution. This makes for a nice, smooth view whether in real-time recording or playback mode. Making the live view even better is the screen’s fast refresh rate; it makes moving subjects look smooth instead of choppy or blurry – if you set it that way.

Older Fujifilm cameras let users choose between 30 and 60fps refresh rates on the LCD screen. The F40fd still has this option, but it is renamed 'Power Management' and moved from the setup menu to a curious position at the top of the 'F' menu. Its options are Power Save (30 fps), Quick AF (30 fps), and Clear Display (60 fps). The first and last options adjust the refresh rate of the screen while the Quick AF shortens the auto focus time by only focusing on the center of the image. This saves power but could result in blurred shots too. The Clear Display mode has the fastest refresh rate, but it drains the battery the fastest.

The display info on the live view can be changed by pushing the Disp./Back button below the bottom left of the multiselector. Users can opt to hide the display info, view a grid with file info, or just the file info. The file info isn’t very elaborate. The screen shows the shooting mode, image size, battery power, number of photos left on the memory card, and if the face detection or any other settings are activated. The shutter speed and aperture appear briefly on the screen too but only once the exposure has been locked by pushing the shutter release button halfway down.

My only complaint about the LCD viewfinder is the live view’s colors don’t always match up with the final picture’s colors. The finished product actually looks better than what is displayed live – so perhaps this is a nice surprise. However, part of a viewfinder’s basic function is to depict a scene just as it is: colors and all. Despite this, all in all, the LCD screen makes a great viewfinder.

LCD Screen (7.5)
The 2.5-inch LCD screen is excellent in both playback and recording modes. The 230,000-pixel resolution makes pictures look great, and the 4:3 format keeps the images 100 percent accurate while framing and viewing. The screen’s brightness can be adjusted on a +/- 5 scale in the setup menu or via a one-touch brightener that can be activated by touching the top of the multiselector in the recording modes.

The size and resolution of the LCD screen are the same as the FinePix F31fd, but Fujifilm did make improvements on the viewing angle. According to the company, the F40fd makes a 25-degree angle improvement over the F31fd. Fujifilm made this improvement with the idea that users who snap portraits with the face detection technology will want to show the pictures to their subjects using the LCD screen. The wider the viewing angle on the LCD screen, the more people can fit around the camera and see the pictures. I held the Fujifilm F31fd up next to the F40fd and compared the two LCD screens. The actual viewing angle seemed nearly the same to me horizontally, but the F40fd had a slight advantage when held above the head. The F40fd’s screen was easier to view, though, since it has a more effective anti-glare coating on it. The anti-glare coating only works if fingerprints are wiped off though. This was especially true outdoors when the sun reflects off any fingerprints not wiped off.

This LCD screen is a big improvement over the F20’s which only had 153,000 pixels on a 2.5-inch monitor. The Fuji F40fd’s amorphous silicon TFT LCD is a successful component of this digital camera.

Flash (8.0)
The FinePix F40fd has a built-in flash unit that looks similar to those on compact digital cameras, but it is dubbed 'Intelligent Flash' or 'i-Flash' by Fujifilm. The concept is that the camera measures the lighting on the subject and the ambient lighting in the background, and then the flash automatically adjusts its output in order to retain the most possible detail in the image. The i-Flash reaches from 2-21.3 feet when the lens is set at its widest and between 2-11.5 feet at the farthest telephoto focal length of the lens. This range is more than most compact digital cameras’ flashes.

The flash component itself is located in the top right corner of the front, which can be problematic when handling the F40fd. The left fingers can easily wander and block the flash while snapping pictures. The following flash modes are accessible by pushing the right side of the multi-selector: Auto, Red-Eye Reduction, On, Off, Slow Synchro, and Red-Eye Reduction + Slow Synchro. The F40fd also has an interesting shooting mode tailored for users who aren’t sure whether to use the flash: Natural Light & With Flash. This mode snaps two pictures in a short burst – one using high ISO sensitivity and the other using the i-Flash unit. The camera then displays both pictures next to each other before saving them both to the memory card.

In the macro mode, the flash is effective from 1-2.6 feet. If the camera is closer than 12 inches to the subject, the lens’ dark shadow will appear. Even when 12 inches away, the flash doesn’t look very even. It looks great when photographing portraits and other subjects at a reasonable distance. The flash is not obtrusive as it doesn’t drown out details in the background and doesn’t wash away skin details to white like many other compact models’ flashes. The F40fd’s flash shows evenly too with only very slight vignetting at the edges.

Zoom Lens (6.5)
A Fujinon 3x optical zoom lens extends from the right side of the camera’s front when it’s on. The lens is the same as on other F-series models, which is unfortunate because most of its point-and-shoot competition has evolved to 3.6x or 4x optical zoom. Earlier models showed some barrel distortion in the macro mode, and the same problem can be seen on the F40fd with its bowed frame edges. It measures 8-24mm, which is equivalent to 36-108mm in the 35mm format. When the image size is set to the 3:2 format, the equivalent zoom is 37-111mm.
The maximum aperture at 8mm is f/2.8 but that shrinks considerably to f/5.1 near the telephoto end of the zoom. By way of comparison, the Sony Cyber-shot T20’s 3x lens has a max aperture of f/4.3 when zoomed in and the Canon PowerShot SD1000 shrinks to f/4.9. The Fuji just doesn’t stack up in this area. It doesn’t let in a lot of light and doesn’t have optical image stabilization, and Fujifilm tries to make up for this with high ISO sensitivity. Still, nothing beats natural light through the lens.

The zoom lever on the FinePix F40fd is different than on other Fujifilm F-series digital cameras. Other models have a zoom rocker control on the back of the camera, but the F40fd opts for a sleeker ring lever that surrounds the shutter release button. This lever has a tiny knob on the front so users can push it back and forth with the index finger. This control looks similar to those on the Canon PowerShot SD-series cameras: trendy and cute. But it isn't quite as functional or comfortable. The tiny control is also not very sensitive and is very jumpy. I tried tapping it very lightly to see how many focal lengths I could get the lens to stop at and got six most of the time and eight once. Sometimes a light tap would zoom the lens only slightly and sometimes the same tap would send the zoom farther than expected. It wasn’t consistent.

The zoom lens isn’t functional in the movie mode, and that probably isn’t a bad thing because there is no image stabilization. Movies will look shaky enough without the extra movement. The F40fd has 6.9x digital zoom that can be activated in the setup menu, but it also doesn’t function in the movie mode. This is just as well: it should really never be used because it compromises image quality so much. When digital zoom is turned on, there is a little "speed bump" in the zoom range so users have to push the ring lever again to transfer from optical to digital zoom and vice versa.

Overall, the Fujinon 3x optical zoom lens is not very impressive due to its short range, lack of image stabilization, and insensitive and uncomfortable control ring.