Slim, smooth, and metallic on
all sides but the flat black back, the Fujifilm FinePix
F40fd fits well in the line's tradition of classy
looking cameras.
The FD40fd is equipped
with an 8.3 megapixel Super CCD, a 3X optical zoom and features
the ubiquitous 2.5-inch LCD monitor that has now become a
de-facto standard for high-end compact cameras. But, in a
departure from recent Fujifilm cameras, the FD40fd
stands out by having a memory card slot that is compatible
with both xD and SD memory cards.
Three controls are positioned
on the top right side of the camera. First is the Power
Switch on the left. The other two controls are combined:
the 2-stage Shutter Release, which provides focus and
auto exposure lock when pressed and held at the halfway point,
and the zoom control which is a ring around it. While the
side of the zoom control moves the lens to the wide angle
end, it also serves in Playback to view thumbnails of the
images, first placing two frames on screen, then 9 if pushed
to the
side again. Pulled to the telephoto side, ,
the zoom control serves to zoom into an image, offering a
magnification factor of up to 5.2X for images captured at
the largest image size.
The other external controls
of the FD40fd are aligned on the right side of the
2.5-inch, 230,000 pixel
LCD monitor. At the top is the Mode Dial,
which has 8 positions. As the Mode Dial is
rotated, its movement is echoed on the right edge of the monitor
by an animation of the dial that not only shows the shooting
mode, but adds a short text description of the mode:
Auto is the point and
shoot mode of the F40fd, allowing the camera to
make all photographic decisions, with the exception of
the image quality and colour mode.
Natural Light with Flash
captures two photos consecutively, the first using the
Natural Light mode, without the flash, and the second
with the flash.
The Manual mode of
the F40fd is in fact a Program
mode as it offers no control over the aperture or the
shutter speed. What the mode offers, however, is manual
control over some of the photographic settings such as
sensitivity, metering pattern, white balance, auto focus,
continuous mode, and exposure compensation.
Movie serves to
capture video clips with sound at either 640 x 480
or 320 x 240 pixels and at 30 frames per second,
and limited only by the capacity of the memory card
in use. The zoom position is set and locked at the first
frame, but the exposure and white balance are adjusted
continuously as the recording progresses.
Scene Position 1 &
Scene Position 2 are access points to the F40fd's
15 Scene programs. These two mode dial
positions make it possible to have immediate access
to two different scene modes, or select another mode
by pressing the menu button to display the Scene mode
selection screen:
Portrait
Landscape
Sport
Night
Fireworks
Sunset
Snow
Beach
Underwater
Museum
Party
Flower
Text
Natural Light allows
capturing images without flash, even when the ambient
light is low. The camera uses its AF assistance light
to focus, and the camera's sensitivity can increase
up to 2000 ISO if necessary.
Picture Stabilization
is a mode that automatically increases ISO sensitivity,
up to 2000 ISO, to prevent camera shake. The flash remains
useable.
Two buttons are placed next
to one another below the Mode Dial. The one on the left, ,
starts the Playback mode. If pressed and held for more
than a couple of seconds while the camera is Off, the button
will start the FD40fd directly in the Playback mode,
which avoids having the lens deploy. And, from the Playback
mode started this way, it can be used to turn off the camera.
The other button, ,
calls up the FinePix menu. With the FD40fd
set to a capture mode, the
button brings up a menu which servers to set 4 parameters:
Power Management serves to control
power consumption:
Power Save: LCD goes dark after
10 seconds of inactivity.
Quick AF: speeds up focusing,
but uses more power.
Clear Display increases the
LCD brightness, but consumes more power. The LCD
goes dark after 30 seconds of inactivity.
ISO serves to set the CCD sensitivity:
100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, Auto (400), Auto (800),
or Auto (1600).
Quality: serves to choose the image
size and quality (see the Characteristics
section of the review).
FinePix Colour provides control
over how the images are recorded: Standard colour
(default), Chrome (increases colour saturation), or
Black and White.
With the F40fd set
to the playback mode, the button displays a three-option
menu:
IR Communication: allows the camera
to communicate via infrared with High Speed
IR compliant devices, such as a printer or
another Fujifilm camera with IR capability, or an
IrSS (IrSimpleShot) compatible device.
Slide Show: serves to review images,
and allows selecting the playback interval and transition.
A feature allows the camera to zoom or fade in on
a face — when the there is one in the photo
— using its built-in face recognition technology
(see further).
DPOF: serves to specify images
to be printed with or without the date superimposed
on the image.
The next control on the back of the camera is the 4-direction
control. As usual, it is used to navigate the menus and review
images, while the button at its centre, MENU/OK, calls
up the menu that corresponds to the current mode, and serves
to confirm selections made in the menu. In
addition, while the camera is set to capture images, each
of the directional arrows controls other functions:
The up arrow controls
the brightness of the monitor. When pressed once, it
increases the brightness, returning to the normal brightness
after the shot is captured, or when the button is pressed
again.
In Playback, the
up arrow can be used to delete images. It is the
only directional control to have both a capture
and a playback function.
The right arrow is
used to select the Flash Modes: Auto, Auto with
Red-eye Reduction, Forced On (fill-in), Suppressed Flash,
Slow Synchro and Slow Synchro with Red-eye Reduction.
The down arrow starts
the Self-timer which has 2 possible delays: 10
seconds when pressed once, and 2 seconds when pressed
twice. When the Self-timer is active, the bright white
LED below the flash that is used as the AF assist lamp
comes on for the first few seconds of the count down,
and blinks just before the shutter is released.
The left arrow engages
the Macro focus Mode. Using the macro focus mode,
the camera is able to focus on a subject that is between
7 and 80 cm (2.8 inches to 2.6 feet) from the lens when
it is at the wide angle end, and from 30 to 80 cm (1
to 2.6 ft.) at the telephoto end.
Two more buttons finish off the external controls of the
F40fd. The button on the right is for:
Intelligent Face
Recognition: (On or Off) allows the camera
to automatically detect one or more faces in the shot
being framed, and works whether the camera is held horizontally
or vertically. By default, the mode is ON and turning
it off requires pressing the
button.
Worth noting, when there are multiple people in the
shot, the camera will focus on the face nearest the
centre of the frame.
The button on the left,
serves to back out of a menu screen without making changes
(BACK), and serves to control the level
of information (DISP) superimposed on the monitor,
cycling through 3 levels each time
the button is pressed while the camera is in a capture
mode. In all cases the aperture and shutter speed are
indicated continuously:
A default mode that shows camera settings superimposed
on the periphery of the monitor's image: shooting
mode, flash mode, metering mode, image quality setting,
the number of shots remaining, ISO setting, battery
state, and the AF brackets are superimposed at the
centre of the frame.
A mode that displays no information, but which displays
the AF brackets when the shutter release is pressed
halfway.
And a mode that, like the default, displays all
the current settings and adds a grid to help with
composition or to align the horizon precisely.
Set to the Playback
mode, the DISP. button also cycles
through three displays.
The first superimposes the image's file name on
the top right, along with the image size and quality
and the ISO setting. At the bottom left of the screen,
the date and time of capture is shown, and below,
the shutter speed and aperture used.
Pressing the button a second time clears all info
from the screen. And a third press of the button displays
images in a calendar view, according to their capture
date.
The Fujifilm F40fd
is a nicely crafted camera that is generally easy to use.
Only those with large hands may find the space dedicated to
the controls on the right of the large monitor a touch too
tight. For example, pressing the display button often entails
accidentally pressing the down arrow as well, which calls
up the self-timer; and similarly, pressing the Menu/OK button
at the centre of the 4-direction control can lead to one of
the arrow-linked functions to be selected.
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Introduction
side of the zoom control moves the lens to the wide angle
end, it also serves in Playback to view thumbnails of the
images, first placing two frames on screen, then 9 if pushed
to the 
,
the zoom control serves to zoom into an image, offering a
magnification factor of up to 5.2X for images captured at
the largest image size.
,
starts the Playback mode. If pressed and held for more
than a couple of seconds while the camera is Off, the button
will start the FD40fd directly in the Playback mode,
which avoids having the lens deploy. And, from the Playback
mode started this way, it can be used to turn off the camera.
,
calls up the FinePix menu. With the FD40fd
set to a capture mode, the 
