Fujifilm FinePix T400 Review

February 5, 2013 | Matt Grayson | Rating star Rating star Rating star Half rating star

Introduction

The Fujifilm FinePix T400 is an affordable long zoom digital compact camera. Alongside the 10x optical zoom, it sports a 16 megapixel sensor, 28mm wide-angle lens, 3 inch LCD screen, 720p HD video and easy upload to social networking sites. The slim, sexy body coupled with the long zoom looks appetising, especially to travellers. Does that mean that the rest of the feature-set has been compromised? In our Fujifilm FinePix T400 review, we'll try to find out. Officially riced at £119.99 / $149.99 but available for around £70 / $90, the T400 comes in purple, blue, black or pink.

Ease of Use

Usually when a digital compact camera comes our way sporting a long zoom lens, we find that the front of the camera is a bit of fascia and a lot of lens barrel. Not so with the Fujifilm FinePix T400. Fujifilm seem to have managed to keep a long zoom available on a slim body without the need for a wider barrel for more telescopic sections. What you're left with is a pretty normal looking camera, really. That's not to say it's unpleasant. The shape and curves that flow around the bulging lens are modern and attractive to look at. Of course, because of the thin body, the lens has to stick out slightly but that's to be expected. The top of the camera has just the power button and shutter release with all other controls on the back of the camera. Even the zoom has been relegated to the rear - normally appearing as a ring wrapped around the shutter release.

Because of the diminutive size of the Fujifilm FinePix T400, the screen takes up a lot more real estate than you'd normally see. The small buttons are squashed over to the right side to accommodate the screen. Aside from the added zoom buttons, the back sports only three other buttons around the main command pad. The options on the buttons are the typical variety; above the command pad, you'll find the Playback button to take a look at pictures you've already taken. At the bottom, there's a button to switch through the display preferences and one with a red dot on which is the direct video record. As well as helping you navigate your way around the menu system, the navigation pad doubles up to allow fast access to your most used features such as macro, self-timer, flash and exposure compensation.

The 10x zoom lens starts at a wide-angle 28mm. Wide-angle lenses are very popular due to people wanting to photograph landscapes and sweeping vistas. The downside is that the 10x zoom lens doesn't have as much reach at the top end. Although 280mm is impressive for such a tiny camera, starting the lens at a focal length typical of 35mm compact cameras and you'd get an extra 70mm at the top end. That can be a big difference.

Fujifilm FinePix T400 Fujifilm FinePix T400
Front Rear

The Fujifilm FinePix T400's body comprises of a plastic exterior with a piece of metal circling the circumference of the camera. On the bottom the plastic tripod bush sits next to an exposed USB port. The memory card (not supplied) sits in the battery compartment next to the lithium ion battery (supplied). Interestingly, the camera has no internal memory. In the past, cameras with no internal memory came with a memory card to get you started. It was assumed that it was some kind of legal requirement to allow immediate play. It just goes to show that it was simply the manufacturers being nice. We're not trying to imply that Fujifilm aren't being nice, but back when they were supplied, a memory card was an expensive accessory. These days, they're a lot more accessible and it will keep the costs down, both on additional internal memory and adding thousands of SD cards to camera boxes.

The screen is lovely and bright with the buttons responding nicely to our commands. They're firm but not difficult. Entering the menu systems, some Fujifilm cameras have an “F” button for the FinePix menu. This isn't present on the T400 and it's not entirely clear why that is. The Main menu is accessed by pressing the menu button in the centre of the command pad. It does everything it needs to do, accessing all the main and core functions. The menu is laid out into two sections: Shooting and Set-up. The Shooting menu is for the day to day modes and features that they can't put on a button. For example in this menu, you can adjust the resolution, ISO, white-balance, continuous shooting or video modes.

Fujifilm FinePix T400 Fujifilm FinePix T400
Front Top

The Fujifilm FinePix T400 comes with face detection installed so that the camera will automatically know when a person is in the frame. It does this by locating the triangular formation of eyes and mouth. It then prioritises them for focus and metering. If you've registered (up to) 8 people in the face recognition banks, the camera will also be able to locate friends in a crowd of people and prioritise them over everyone else. It will also bring up their name on screen. Another couple of extra aids when shooting portraits is Blink warning and Smile & Shoot mode. Blink warning will let you know if someone has blinked in the image. You can then retake, save or delete the original, examine it and enlarge the face to check. Smile & Shoot mode will detect when someone ion the frame is smiling and will automatically take a picture without the need to press the shutter release. This is to try and obviate reflex lag and have more of a chance of getting the right shot.

But then, it's not just a smile shutter that's going to get the shot. The camera has to be fast at taking pictures, focusing, metering and taking rapid pictures in succession. Shooting from a cold start is a tricky one. Simply pressing the power button and holding the shutter down until it takes a picture doesn't curry any favours in the Fujifilm camp. To get the best response, the trick is to wait until the writing appears on the screen. If you're fast enough, like we are, you can get a standard result of around 2.5sec. We always test our shutter lag pre-focused as without pre-focus isn't just shutter lag, it's also focus speed. Happily, the lag on the T400 is the same as any other digital compact camera recording times of 0.08sec. The T400 only has one continuous shooting mode called Top 3. It simply takes three pictures in a row and stores them to the card. It's slow, in fact the three pictures were taken in just over 2 seconds. Sadly, the camera took up to 11 seconds to record those three pictures onto the memory card.

Fujifilm FinePix T400 Fujifilm FinePix T400
Memory Card Slot Battery Compartment

You can access the pictures you've already taken by pressing the Playback button on the back of the camera. This can be done whether the camera is on or off, but if it's off, you have to hold the button down for a few seconds. Pictures are displayed full screen with basic shooting information on such as ISO, resolution, battery status, date, time, aperture and shutter speed. The Playback menu has it's own section which replaces the Shooting section - the set-up menu remains the same. Because the Playback is all about after the picture is taken, there are a few features such as Photobook assist, red-eye removal, crop, resize and protect. If you use the face recognition, you can search for images based on information you feed it and you can also erase all face recognition information. A particularly unusual option to provide.

If you want to look at more than one picture at once, zooming out will show the pictures in a sort of “Windows Aero” style while zooming out again gives them a cascade effect. Once more and you get the thumbnails that everyone expects.

In the box along with the Fujifilm FinePix T400, you get a lithium-ion battery with charger, wrist strap and USB cable. There's also a basic manual to get you started. The full manual is on the enclosed CD which also has the FinePix Studio version 3.2.

Image Quality

All images in the review were taken at full resolution on the finest setting unless otherwise stated. Images at this setting give a file size of over 7Mb. Cutting down to Normal file size gives results of around half that.

Noise

Being a budget digital compact camera, we didn't hold many high expectations going into the noise test. However, initial readings look ok with low ISO images looking a lot more balanced than other digital compacts - including other Fujifilm cameras. That's an odd way of putting it and what we mean is that although the colours are noise free, there's not the usual sharp, clean lines that we have come to expect, an over-zealous processor - in part - being responsible. The results are a little “rough around the edges”. Put it this way, the edges aren't as sharp or clean as we've seen recently on other cameras, but it still looks ok. Moving up to ISO 200, fine salt and pepper grain begins to appear, which is expected but still unfortunate.

The great news is that although colour noise does become noticeable at ISO 400, it's only really at full magnification. Looking at the pictures at normal viewing size, they look good. There's a big leap downward at ISO 800 with spots of bright blue appearing all over darker areas of the frame while JPEG artefacts litter the entire picture. By ISO 1600, the noise reduction software has given up and gone to bed. The images at this setting have a blue cast all over them and noise reduction simply can't cope. In an effort to thwart it, the camera reduces the resolution for the ISO 3200 setting and it works to a degree. It manages to remove one type of noise that is caused by over heating pixels affecting neighbouring pixels. However, the sacrifice is high image resolution.

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Fujifilm FinePix T400's 10x optical zoom offers a focal length of 5-50mm or 28-280mm in 35mm terms. At wide-angle there's a slight amount of barrel distortion but we couldn't detect any pincushion at full zoom.

28mm

280mm

Sharpening

While the Fujifilm FinePix T400's processor sharpens images when saving to the memory card, they certainly benefit from a little extra in an editing suite such as Adobe Photoshop. However, if the noise is too high in the image, the sharpening will exacerbate the problem.

Original (100% Crop)

Sharpened (100% Crop)

   

File Quality

The Fujifilm FinePix T400 has 2 different image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options.

Fine

Normal

Chromatic Aberrations

We found examples of chromatic aberration on some images. We noticed that a few of the examples were either lens flare or a mixture of the two. It's not actually the worst we've seen and it happens on the very fringes of the frame.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

   

Chromatic Aberrations 3 (100% Crop)

 
 

Macro

According to the Fujifilm website, the close focusing of the T400 is 3cm. We didn't get that close in any of our macro shots and it was constantly a battle of trying to focus, moving back a little, trying again, moving back a little. If we'd been shooting wildlife, such as an interesting lizard, it would have taken too long.

However, because of the focal length along with the distance between lens and subject, we got less barrel distortion than we see on lenses that go closer and wider.

Macro

Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The Fujifilm FinePix T400 does get vignetting at wide-angle which is made worse by the flash. There's also a slight amount at full zoom as well. Using flash follows the same routine by making the dark corners slightly darker.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (28mm)

Flash On - Wide Angle (28mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64
   

Flash Off - Wide Angle (280mm)

Flash On - Wide Angle (280mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64

The Fujifilm FinePix T400 does give red-eye but all is not lost. The red-eye removal feature in the Main menu works quite well. We didn't get the bright red eyes that is normally seen. The red was quite dark, but definitely there.

Flash On

Flash On (100% Crop)
   

Red Eye Reduction

Red Eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

As well as being able to take photographs at night in any mode, the Fujifilm FinePix T400 has two specific Night modes. One is for use with a tripod and selects a lower ISO. Usually, we find that the white-balance can't cope and the image we take in Program mode is better. However, we discovered that while the first part is true, the T400 doesn't have long enough exposures in Program mode so our test shot came out underexposed. The Night scene and Program mode both used ISO 100 for low noise but the camera allows longer exposures in Night mode.

Night

Night (100% Crop)

   

Night Scene

Night Scene (100% Crop)

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Fujifilm FinePix T400 camera, which were all taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

This is a sample movie at the highest quality setting of 1280x720 pixels at 30 frames per second. Please note that this 37 second movie is 129Mb in size.

Product Images

Fujifilm FinePix T400

Front of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Front of the Camera / Lens Extended

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Isometric View

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Isometric View

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Rear of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Rear of the Camera / Shooting Menu

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Rear of the Camera / Set-up Menu

 

Fujifilm FinePix T400

Rear of the Camera / Playback Menu

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Top of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Bottom of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Side of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Side of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Front of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Front of the Camera

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Memory Card Slot

 
Fujifilm FinePix T400

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

According to the Fujifilm website, the battery that comes with the FinePix T400 will take 160 pictures in one charge in Auto mode. That's not including using menus or playback etc. We barely managed 100 after a full overnight charge. Using the menu or looking at pictures in playback will use up more juice but surely not 40% of it's charge life? We don't think so, we think the battery we got for the test was a turkey. That aside, using the Fujifilm FinePix T400 is point and shoot simplicity. There's no manual controls to think about unless you want to start messing about with ISO and white-balance. Even the metering mode (known on Fujifilm menus as Photometry) is missing.

Because of the ease of use, the act of picture taking with the Fujifilm FinePix T400 is a breeze. We're not overly happy with the pictures though. We like the sharpness of the low ISO images and that noise isn't too noticeable until you get near the mid-section of the scale. It attacks fast then, though. Colours are good with primaries punchy but not over saturated. The dynamic range (how responsive the camera is to light and dark) is poor. We continuously got burnt out highlights and/or clouds with no detail. This is because the camera will - quite rightly - prioritise for the ground and get that looking nice.

For a plastic based unit, the Fujifilm FinePix T400 is made well enough. We wonder at the reasoning behind placing the zoom as a thumb movement and not on the index finger, but it's not an unwelcome action. In fact it's quite refreshing. It's a shame that the USB port is exposed as it's likely to get dirt and dust in it.

For the modest cost, the Fujifilm FinePix T400 a nice little camera. The lack of image quality - we assume - is down to the quality of the sensor for the price point they wanted the camera at. If you're a family looking for an all-round camera for holidays and such then the T400 isn't a bad little camera to own. On the whole, you'll be happy with the picture quality but have a look at the samples and think about the points we've raised. If it doesn't bother you, then the other aspects of the Fujifilm FinePix T400 are definitely more positive.

3.5 stars

Ratings (out of 5)
Design 4
Features 3.5
Ease-of-use 4
Image quality 3
Value for money 3.5

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Fujifilm FinePix T400 from around the web.

trustedreviews.com »

The Fuji T400 is a 16MP budget compact that comes with an extended 10x optical zoom. This elevates it somewhat above the mass of 4x and 5x budget compacts that dominate the £80-100 budget end of the market. But does the T400's extended reach come at a price. Let's take a closer look and find out.
Read the full review »

reviews.cnet.co.uk »

The Fujifilm FinePix T400 is an extremely inexpensive and easy-to-use compact camera. It falls down slightly when forced to use higher sensitivities such as for dark indoor shots and there's evidence of slightly heavy-handed JPEG compression here and there. But the specs are impressive and overall image quality in regular use is good.
Read the full review »

ephotozine.com »

The Fujifilm FinePix T400 was announced in January 2012, it has a similar specification to the T200. It has a 10x optical zoom lens and is available in black, blue, pink and purple for £89.95.
Read the full review »

Specifications

Effective Pixels 16.0 million pixels
Sensor type 1/2.3-inch CCD with primary colour filter
Storage media
  • Internal memory (none)
  • SD / SDHC / SDXC memory card*2
File format
still image
JPEG (Exif Ver 2.3)*3
(Design rule for Camera File system compliant / DPOF-compatible)
movie
AVI (Motion JPEG)
Number of recorded pixels
still image
L : (4:3) 4608 x 3440 / (3:2) 4608 x 3072 / (16:9) 4608 x 2592
M : (4:3) 3264 x 2448 / (16:9) 3072 x 1728
S : (4:3) 2304 x 1728 / (16:9) 1920 x 1080
 
name
Fujinon 10x optical zoom lens
focal length
f=5.0 - 50.0 mm, equivalent to 28 - 280 mm on a 35 mm camera
full-aperture
F3.4 (Wide) - F5.6 (Telephoto)
constitution
8 groups 10 lenses
Digital zoom Approx. 7.2x (up to approx. 72x, with 10x optical zoom)
Aperture F3.4 / F8.4 (Wide)
F5.6 / F14 (Telephoto) with ND filter
Focus distance (from lens surface)
Normal
Wide : Approx. 45cm to infinity / 1.4 ft. to infinity
Telephoto : Approx. 2.0m to infinity / 6.5 ft. to infinity
Macro
Wide : Approx. 3 cm - 2.5 m / 1.1 in. - 8.2 ft.
Telephoto : Approx. 90 cm - 2.5 m / 2.9 ft. - 8.2 ft.
Sensitivity Auto, Equivalent to ISO 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600 / 3200* (Standard Output Sensitivity)
  • * ISO 3200 is effective in image size S.
Exposure control TTL 256-zones metering
Exposure mode Programmed AE
Shooting modes
SP
SR AUTO, AUTO, P, Natural Light & with Flash, Natural Light, Portrait, Baby, Smile & Shoot, Landscape, Motion Panorama, Sport, Night, Night (Tripod), Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Party, Flower, Text
Image stabilisation CCD shift type
Face detection Yes
Exposure compensation -2.0EV - +2.0EV 1/3EV step
Shutter speed (Auto mode) 1/4sec. to 1/2000sec., (All other modes) 8sec. to 1/2000sec. with mechanical shutter
Continuous shooting
TOP
TOP-3 max. 1.1fps
Focus
mode
Single AF / Continuous AF (SR AUTO, Movie)
type
TTL contrast AF
AF frame selection
Center / Tracking
White balance Automatic scene recognition
Preset
Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light
Self timer Approx. 10 sec. / 2 sec. delay
Flash Auto flash (i-flash)
Effective range : (ISO AUTO)
Normal
  • Wide : Approx. 50cm - 4.5m / 1.6ft. - 14.7ft.
  • Telephoto : Approx. 90cm - 2.8m / 2.9ft. - 9.1ft.
Macro
  • Wide : Approx. 30cm - 80cm / 11.8in. - 2.6ft.
  • Telephoto : Approx. 80cm - 1.2m / 2.6ft. - 3.9ft.
Flash modes
Red-eye removal OFF
Auto, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro.
Red-eye removal ON
Red-eye Reduction Auto, Red-eye Reduction & Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Red-eye Reduction & Slow Synchro.
LCD monitor 3.0-inch, approx. 230,000 dots, TFT color LCD monitor, approx. 96% coverage
Movie recording 1280 x 720 pixels / 640 x 480 pixels / 320 x 240 pixels (30 frames/sec.) with monaural sound.
Zoom function can be used.
Sounds will not be recorded during optical zoom operation.
Photography functions SR AUTO, Face Detection, Auto red-eye removal, Face recognition, Blink detection, Framing guideline, Automatic LCD brightness adjustment, Frame No. memory, Date stamp
Playback functions Face Detection, Photobook assist, Image search, Erase selected frames, Slide show, Auto red-eye removal, Crop, Resize, Image rotate, Mark for upload, Multi-frame playback (with Microthumbnail), Panorama, Favorite, Movie edit
Other functions PictBridge, Exif Print, Print Image Matching II, 35 languages selection, Time difference, Silent mode
Terminal
Video output
NTSC / PAL selectable with monaural sound
Digital interface
USB 2.0 High-Speed
Power supply Li-ion battery NP-45A or NP-45B (included)
Dimensions 104.2 (W) x 58.5 (H) x 28.5 (D) mm / 4.1 (W) x 2.3 (H) x 1.1 (D) in.
(Minimum depth : 19.8 mm / 0.7 in.)
Weight Approx. 159 g / 5.6 oz. (including battery and memory card)
Approx. 142 g / 5.0 oz. (excluding battery and memory card)
Operating temperature 0°C - 40°C
Operating humidity 10% - 80% (no condensation)
Battery life Approx. 160 frames (AUTO mode)
Accessories included Li-ion battery NP-45A or NP-45B (included)
AC power adapter
USB cable
Hand strap
CD-ROM
Owner's manual
Optional accessories Li-ion battery NP-45A
Battery charger BC-45W
AV cable AV-C1
HD Player HDP-L1

Your Comments

Loading comments…