Product Reviews

FujiFilm's F31fd (reviewed in What's New, Shopper April 2007) is one of the best compact digital cameras we've seen, so we jumped at the chance to review the F40fd. The new model increases the megapixel count from 6.3 to 8.1 and, for the first time on a FujiFilm camera, includes an SD slot. This suggests that FujiFilm is finally facing up to the fact that xD media is slow and overpriced. However, an xD slot is incorporated as well for those upgrading from an older FujiFilm camera.

This gave us an opportunity to make some direct comparative tests of xD and SD's performance. Sure enough, continuous shooting fell from 0.43 to 0.37fps when switching from SD to xD media. However, both of these scores are poor, with other 8-megapixel cameras achieving 2fps. In Auto mode, the F40fd took around three seconds between shots, which is a little slow by today's standards. Battery life is above average at 415 shots in our test, although this is down from the 702 shots the F31fd managed.

The classy design closely resembles the F31fd, with a curved metal body, a 21/2in 230,000-pixel screen and straightforward controls and menus. We're disappointed that it lacks the aperture and shutter-priority modes included in the F31fd, but the mode dial does have some other interesting options. Natural Light uses ISO speeds up to 2,000 for low-light photography without the flash, while Natural & Flash takes two shots with and without the flash in quick succession, leaving you to choose the best when you get the pictures home. Picture Stabilisation uses high ISO and the flash together, which is useful for shooting larger scenes that the flash would

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otherwise struggle to illuminate. Two more dial positions provide quick access to Portrait and Landscape presets, but you can change these to any two others. Adjusting the mode dial reveals a short text description of each mode, so you're not just left to decipher the icons or delve into the manual.

Mode dials don't usually cause us much excitement, but by providing quick access to the more useful scene presets, this one offers tangible benefits to casual snappers. Meanwhile, a dedicated button activates face detection to assist with exposure and focus. This is increasingly common in digital cameras, but FujiFilm's implementation is one of the best, detecting up to 10 faces and responding quickly to moving subjects.

Image quality is undoubtedly the F40fd's strongest asset. Pixel for pixel, images were considerably sharper and more detailed than from any of the other cameras reviewed this month, making this an 8-megapixel camera that offers significantly sharper pictures than lower-resolution cameras. Noise was barely perceptible at ISO 400 and far from intrusive at ISO 800. Even ISO 1,600 gave acceptable results at times, although defined edges looked a little spidery at high magnification. Not once did the camera produce a badly exposed photo, and it excelled itself in controlling the highlights of high-contrast scenes. Video capture was also excellent, with sharp, noise-free image quality, smooth auto-exposure and ingenious use of the auto-focus assist light to give a bit of illumination in very dark conditions.

In some respects the F40fd is more like FujiFilm's Finepix F20 than the F31fd, with its lack of priority modes, smaller battery and top ISO speed of 1,600 (or 2,000 in some scene presets), although it does include the F31fd's face detection. However, for image detail, it offers significant improvements over both. The F31fd is currently available for just £147, while the F20 costs just £100, both of which are spectacularly good deals. However, at £170, the F40fd is just as appealing for those who value accessible scene presets over priority modes, don't demand very fast performance and want the best picture quality currently available from a compact digital camera.