Fujifilm Finepix F40fd Review

Review Date: October 18th 2007
Author: Mark Goldstein

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Conclusion

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4.5
Features	4
Ease-of-Use	4
Image Quality	3.5
Value for Money	4.5

The Fujifilm Finepix F40fd undoubtedly offers a number of significant improvements to what was a great camera, the F20, which we gave a Highly Recommended award one year ago. There's an increase from 6 to 8 megapixels, new Face Detection feature for better people shots, more stylish design and the much improved zoom lever and mode dial. On paper at least the F40fd should retain its status as one of the best point and shoot cameras around, but it doesn't quite work out like that in practice, for three main reasons. Firstly those extra megapixels have negatively affected the overall image quality, with noise and blurring of detail at ISO 400, and a new problem in the form of obvious purple fringing, which the older F20 didn't suffer so badly from. Secondly, the F40fd is the victim of a rapidly changing marketplace, where similar cameras offer advanced features like mechanical image stabilisation systems, bigger zoom lenses and larger LCD screens. And thirdly, it isn't quite as fast and responsive as its predecessor. OK, so the F40fd is now 6 months old, and it can be found online for around £150 / $250, making it undeniably good value, but that's not enough for it to recieve anything more than a Recommended award. The Fujifilm Finepix F40fd is still a good point and shoot camera, but no longer a great one.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Fujifilm Finepix F40fd have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.

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