Fujifilm FinePix F40fd

Manual Control Options
The Fujifilm FinePix F40fd has an 'M' position on its mode dial, but it should be more accurately titled a 'program' mode instead of 'manual.' Exposure settings cannot be changed individually, but several options like exposure compensation, white balance, and ISO can be set. Some other F-series cameras have more manual control such as the F31fd with its aperture and shutter priority modes, but the F40fd is mainly automatic.

Focus
Auto Focus (8.0)
With its new Real Photo Processor, the Fujifilm FinePix F40fd is now endowed with face-detection auto focus technology that can recognize up to 10 faces at a time. Once faces are recognized, the camera automatically adjusts the focus and exposure so portraits are sharp and look good. This works well. The camera recognizes faces quickly and tracks them surprisingly well, although it does a better job finding adult faces rather than those of children. The face-detection auto focus mode is easy to access with a designated button in the lower right corner of the back.

The face detection must be turned off to access the other auto focus modes in the shooting menu: Single, Continuous, Center, and Multi. However, the continuous auto focus mode is distractingly noisy; it sounds like a metal butterfly stuck in a tin can. The center and multi auto focus options show yellow brackets where they are focusing. An AF illuminator can be turned on and off in the setup menu too. The Fujifilm FinePix F40fd’s auto focus system reaches from 1.5 feet (60cm) to infinity normally. The lens can focus from 2 feet when zoomed in. A macro focus mode can be activated by pushing the left side of the multi-selector, and its range reaches from 2.8 inches to 2.6 feet (7-80cm) in wide and 1-2.6 feet (30-80cm) in telephoto. The through-the-lens contrast type auto focus system performed decently although there was still a touch of shutter lag. Most pictures were sharply focused but the camera had trouble focusing in low light and when there was no clear subject, like when shooting into a crowd.

Manual Focus (0.0)
There is no manual focus mode on the Fujifilm FinePix F40fd digital camera.

ISO (8.25)
More and more compact digital cameras are including higher ISO sensitivity, but some are 'cheating' and using higher ISO settings only with reduced resolution. The Fujifilm F40fd doesn’t cheat. It allows users to adjust the ISO sensitivity manually from 100 to 1600 at the full 8.3 megapixels; the ISO settings are found in the 'F' menu. When the Picture Stabilization or Natural Light modes are used, the automatic maximum ISO 2000 setting is used. This is still less than the F31fd’s max of 3200, but it is sufficient to keep low light shots illuminated and still better than most of the competition; however, at this speed, images are also fairly noisy.

There are also three 'auto' settings: Auto 1600, Auto 800, and Auto 400. While an interesting technology for controlling noise, it seems a little silly to have four automatic settings when most consumers will leave the default auto setting activated or use the manual mode. 

White Balance (7.75)
The Fujifilm FinePix F40fd has several white balance settings in the main shooting menu. They can be scrolled through with a live view: Auto, Fine (daylight), Shade, Fluorescent 1 (daylight), Fluorescent 2 (warm white), Fluorescent 3 (cool white), Incandescent, and Custom. The fluorescent modes are ambiguously titled with numbers in the menu, but the live view is probably more helpful than text anyways. The selection is good, and the custom setting is easy to use with on-screen instructions on how to set it.

Exposure (8.5)
The Fujifilm F40fd has more than a dozen automatic exposure modes. The exposure settings cannot be tweaked individually, but users can adjust the exposure compensation within the +/- 2 scale in the shooting menu. The standard 1/3-step increments are available. The live view behind the scale makes it easy for beginners to see the effects of their choices on the image. The camera's face detection technology will also expose for detected faces when the setting is engaged.

Metering (7.75)
Fujifilm calls its metering system 'photometry' in the recording menu. The following options are available with a live view: Multi, Spot, and Average. The F40fd uses a 256-zone through-the-lens metering system that seems to work well in most situations. The metering cannot be adjusted in the movie mode so videoing backlit subjects will result in dark detail-less shadows for subjects.

Shutter Speed (0.0)
The camera’s shutter speeds are automatically chosen and range from 1/2000th of a second to 4 seconds, depending on the selected shooting mode. In the Fireworks scene mode, users can manually select the shutter speed with the right and left arrows of the multi-selector: ½, 1/1.6, 1/1.3, 1, 1.3, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, and 4-second shutter speeds can be selected. This is like a shutter speed priority mode but for long exposures only.

Aperture (0.0)
The Fujinon lens has a wide aperture at its wide 8mm focal length: f/2.8. At 24mm (full telephoto), however, the aperture withers away to f/5.1. This doesn’t leave much light for photos, so users may often find themselves bumping up the ISO sensitivity. Still, a larger aperture is preferable keep noise out of images. The smallest the aperture gets is f/8, with 10 steps automatically selected by the camera between f/2.8 and f/8.