Does anyone have Fuji Finepix F40 experience?

[cseca]

What do you think about the performance?
I'm trying to figure out what camera to buy for my trip.
I've done my research and bought and returned 2 cameras already:
SD800
Lumix LZ or a TZ something (the one with 10x zoom)

Both cameras don't do well in low lights.

After MUCH research a lot of sites seem to recommend Fuji for low light pics.
Especially the F30 or F31.
The problem is they both use xD and I don't want to use xD cards (I have tons of SD already).
So the next up is F40.
The reviews for F40 is pretty favorable for low light except for speed.
Seems like the response times of this camera is pretty slow (shot to shot, powering up, etc.)

Does anyone have personal experience with this camera?

DPreview doesn't have any review for this camera unfortunately and I trust their reviews.

I know F50 is coming up soon, but I need a new camera for our first cruise (which is coming up in less than 3 weeks).
As much as I'd like to wait, I think I don't have the time...

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Groucho]

Take a look at this thread, we recently upgraded my wife's Canon SD600 to a Fuji F40 in order to improve the low-light ability. The message mostly centers on the sensors, but also a little bit of a mini-review on the Fuji itself. Like you, I was interested in the F31 but didn't want to start buying xD cards.

It is certainly much more capable in low light than most other small cameras. Overall, we're pretty happy with it - the low light functionality is certainly better and I prefer the colors, but it occasionally focuses slightly differently than the Canon, and the movie mode has nicer colors but less bitrate, which means smaller files but more compression artifacts. It's not perfect, but no camera in that range is (or, heck, any camera), but I don't think there's anything non-Fuji that can compete in its class for low-level. It's a long way from the low-light ability of my DSLR, but heck, I've got a few lenses that cost alone as much as the F40.

As for DPReview, I don't trust their reviews very much, so I'm not concerned about their feelings about the camera. Check out Digital Camera Tracker, which links to many F40 reviews.

And the F50... I don't have much hope for it, 12 megapixels is way too much for any compact camera sensor, even Fuji's relatively oversized ones.

 

[cseca]

Thank you SO much!
I ended up ordering it from walmart because their return policy has no restocking fee.
I'll be playing with it as soon as I get it... thanks again!
Hope I like it as much as you

 

[Groucho]

Hope you enjoy it!

The one thing that really annoys me to no end is that in "auto", flash photos will generally be at ISO 800. (In auto, you can't change the ISO setting, which defaults to max out at 800.) This means that flash photos are much noisier than they should be. The solution appears to keep it in "M" mode and in normal use, leave it in "Auto 400" or "Auto 800" (that's how high the ISO will go) and when shooting flash, set it down to ISO 100.

I can only assume that they do it so that the backgrounds are brighter, but I'll trade dark backgrounds for significantly sharper foregrounds, thank you very much.

Fortunately, changing ISO is quick and easy - press F, then right-directional, and select the ISO.

 

[grahamsgirl]

Hi there
I have recently purchased the fuji finepix f40 fd. I have found it a fantastic point and shoot, it is compact but quite heavy in comparison to others of similar size. Picture quality excellent, with lots of scene settings explained. Does well in low light conditions. and has face detection , which focuses on all faces in the photo (up to 10 in one photo I think). But the clincher for me was that it takes both xd and sd cards. Like yourself my previous PnS took SD cards , so that has saved me extra expense.
Also as a sidenote you can by a waterproof underwater housing for this model, granted it is nearly as expensive as the camera, but I am considering it just to get some fab action shots on kali river rapids or splash mountain without worrying about getting the camera wet.
Just my thoughts
Good luck with your purchase

 

[cseca]

Thanks you two!
I'm excited to get my new camera

 

[cseca]

OK, I got my new camera....
Been playing with it at night after work.
So referring back to the suggestion of keeping it on M Auto 400 or 800, do I keep it on that setting for normal daylight pictures too?
I know it was also mentioned changing it to ISO 100 with flash. Would it be alright to just keep it at 400 with or without flash or is it going to create noisy pictures?

Thanks so much and as you can tell I'm still learning about photography...


TIA!

 

[Groucho]

400 with flash probably shouldn't be too bad. (It's amazing that a compact little point-n-shoot is even halfway-decent results at ISO 800 - heck, the previous PnS that it replaced for us maxed at ISO 400 and was pretty noisy there.) Auto 400 is probably a good place to keep it if you don't want to mess with the settings very often, and if you are in a situation where you really need the extra ISO, you can set it to a higher setting. Though like I said, I think you get a little bit less background when using flash at ISO 100 vs a higher one, but it's hard to say for sure.

The camera is still pretty new to us, too, so I'm still figuring out how to get the best from at. At low ISOs, it can capture a surprising amount of detail. At my wife and I use it more, we may discover other settings that work better than how we're using it now. The ISO 800 with flash is the only thing that really bugs me about the camera in Auto mode.