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 but the F31fd only has aperture and shutter priority modes.

Focus
Auto Focus  
With its new Real Photo Processor, the F40fd is now endowed with face-detection auto focus technology that can recognize up to ten faces at a time. Once faces are recognized, the camera automatically adjusts the focus so portraits are sharp. The face detection auto focus mode works well. It recognizes faces quickly and tracks them surprisingly well. The face-detection auto focus mode is easy to access with a designated button in the bottom 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 really does sound 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 60cm to infinity normally. A macro focus mode can be activated by pushing the left side of the multi-selector, and its range reaches from 7-80cm in wide and 30-80cm in telephoto.

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

ISO
More and more compact digital cameras are including higher ISO sensitivity, but some are "cheating" and using higher ISO settings but only with reduced resolution. The Fujifilm F40fd doesn’t cheat and 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 maximum ISO 2000 is used. This is still less than the F31fd’s max of 3200, but it is sufficient to keep decently low light shots illuminated and still better than most of the competition. There are also three "auto" settings: Auto 1600, Auto 800, and Auto 400. Although if you’re going to set these, why not manually set them?

Fujifilm’s previous F-series cameras produced very little noise even when the higher ISO settings were used, so this is an area we will keep an eye on when we review the camera in the coming months.

White Balance
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.

Exposure
The Fujifilm F40fd has more than a dozen exposure modes, most are automatically oriented. 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. A live view is behind the scale that makes it easy for beginners to see the effects of their choices on the scale.

Metering
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.

Shutter Speed
The camera’s shutter speeds are automatically chosen and range from 1/2000th of a second to 3 seconds, depending on the selected shooting mode.

Aperture
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 to be sure to keep noise out of images. The smallest the aperture gets is f/8, with 10 steps between f/2.8 and f/8.