Any Fujifilm FinePix F40fd camera owners - any good?

Anybody own a Fujifilm FinePix F40fd digital camera?
What are your opinions of this camera? Which accessories do you recommend
with this camera - compact protective case, memory card, ac adapter, lens
cleaning cloth, lcd screen protector, extra lithium-ion battery, etc.

marc

 

I don't own no Fujifilm to know what the F40FD looks like, but to me it
doesn't matter. Or just go by the general basic rule or guideline whatever
you want to call it. Something like

- If you want to capture more image from different distance's then go with
the long ZOOM. Either 10-12X optical *not* digital

- If you want sharp image or camera-shake problem then go with the "IS"

- Memory is so cheap these days, so go with LARGE one. I would go at least
4GB (I use 8GB)

- Do some research about how well it does on battery. If it uses special
battery then buy an extra 3rd party battery for insurance.

Forget about cleaning cloth, LCD protector, AC Adpater, Case etc.. just
try to enjoy the toy first then do the worrying later.

And point your browser to GOOGLE for more detail information, comparing it
with other see if it's the best for your need or not.

That's it! we don't need to find an easier way to make life more
complicate to live <bg>

 

I don't own no Fujifilm to know what the F40FD looks like, but to me it

For you, Joel, it certainly "doesn't matter" but it is important for
Marc! I suppose he will be grateful of your "basic" suggestions but it
will be more important for him if he can see the opinion of "owners"
of this new model of Fuji (imho).

I have not any experience too, but a friend of mine has a FinePix camera
and I was pleased to see how good photos it produces.

Marc, here you can find some sample pictures made with FinePix F40fd from
flickr -- look fine, indeed:
http://flickr.com/cameras/fujifilm/finepix_f40fd/ If you are interested
you can send some more questions to the authors of these pictures.

Concerning the cleaning cloth, I have experience with my Canon PowerShot
A510 (also compact camera). The lens is very sensitive to dust and
a high humidity. Have in mind that sometimes it may not open
entirely when the weather is wet, or at the beach, for example. I use a
microfiber cloth for cleaning gently the lens and the screen -- but not so
often (no more than two-three times per year if it's necessary).

Have fun, keep snapping! I'll be glad to see your photos!

Good luck!

Geri

 

Then we can always depend on you to pass the important message to Marc.

 

The fujifilm f40 only supports a maximum of 2GB memory cards.
Also, I was wondering if it's worth getting the high performance memory
cards
available or are the ordinary was okay. For instance, scandisk offers
extreme
II , III and IV memory cards:
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(1002)-High_Performance_Photo_and_Video.asp

It can take over 300 pictures with one charge; it's battery usage is above
average.

 

Which cloth did you buy ?
Thanks for replying Geri. I'm planning on buying one soon.

 

Fuji says the F40fd can use SDHC cards to 8GB if one does a firmware
upgrade to the camera.

http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/accessories/card/index.html#compati

There's a link at the bottom for downloading the upgrade.

 

Most digital cameras including DSLR have recording/writing speed
limitation and the speed of most if not all current memory card are faster
than the camera can write. So it should work fine with slow WRITING speed,
but most DSLR users go for faster (66X or faster up to 266X now) so they can
transfer from Memory Card Reader to computer faster.

So, you should be fine with 40X or faster. But since the price difference
is very small, I would go with at least 66X

For the price, you may want to GOOGLE or check with some site like
www.nextag.com to find lowest price, for end user feedback (anf often have
good price too) you can check with site like www.newegg.com

I only have an old Sandisk 1GB which I no longer use, I have (3) Transend
8GB 133X, couple 4GB and 2GB from different manufacture.

300 pictures is pretty good, and having an extra battery for insurance
isn't a bad idea. I dunno about Fujifilm, but I am using 2 Canon DSLRs and
I can get third party battery with even higher capaticy than original for as
little as $5-7 a pop (I have 2 spares), and I can get over 1200+ images per
charge.

 

This is all good advice. I'll just add that my research seems to indicate
that Canon point and shoots are pretty hard to beat.

If you compare a list of given features and prices, you will tend to get
better pictures and more features with a Canon point and shoot than other
makes and models.

From my own experience, I have both Canon and Fuji cameras in my kit bagg.
On the whole, I like a couple of things about the Fuji cameras, but if I was
forced to go with one brand over the other, I'd pick the Canon without
batting an eye.

Take Care,
Dudley

 

Just wanna add some info to it. The max speed of SDHC is now Class-6 and
I have no idea how it translates to CF speed. I also have one of the
Transend SDHC 8GB Class-6 for my GPS (not required). I actually don't know
what to do with all those mucho memory, but since it's cheap and I may use
for something else in the future so I bought 8GB.

 

3M Microfiber Lens Cleaning Cloth will be fine.

The buying of camera is always not easy. More or less the choice depends
on what you want to do with the camera. You might look once again Dudley's
comment. Have in mind that Fujifilm FinePix F40fd has no aperture and
shutter speed priority modes (as many of Canon and Lumix point and
shoot cameras have) and if you like to use any manual settings it will be
difficult with this camera.

You can check here also some owners' opinions:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/read_opinions.asp?prodkey=fuji_finepixf40fd


Good luck!

Geri

 

For anyone looking at that manufacturer link I posted that shows the F40fd
being firmware-upgradable to use 8 gigs, the table is ENDLESS. Just use
your browser's page search for f40. Damn, Fuji has made a lot of camera
models.

 

Few months ago, I looked at the list and comparison etc. on
www.dpreview.com and www.steves-digital.com (I forgot te name of this again,
even I have known it for around a decade or so). I don't have problem
remembering "DPreview" because I just translate to "Digital Preview"

Back to the list, so many manufactures have so many models, some releases
several models yearly.

 

I figured that's what it meant.

I just counted the Fuji cameras on that list, and came up with 98. Whew.

 

So with this firmware update I can use up to 8GB memory cards. What is sdnc
mean? What about buying faster memory cards, do they make a difference?
I noticed for the firmware upgrade they say you should always use the AC
adapter when updating the firmware. Doesn't Fujifilm only include the
battery
charger when you buy the camera - no ac adapter is included when you
buy the camera, right ?

 

I found the link for the firmware upgrade here:
http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital/download/f40fd_f45fd/fupd.html

 

That's probably the link that's at the bottom of the page I linked, as I
noted. Did you bypass the instructions, or are they on the same page?
They're not quite intuitive, IMO; I'd have to have them in front of me,
anyway.

 

The faster ones that I've seen are also the higher capacity ones. I infer
from that and what else I've read that to get the faster speed - up to I
believe 133x (20 meg/sec) - you have to have one of the larger (than 2GB)
type cards.

It says that, but also says that you can use batts if you don't have a
charger. And that the upgrade only takes about 20 seconds.

I didn't get either. Just the camera and a couple batteries. But I don't
have an F40fd. I just pitched in here with the information about the
upgrade ability to >2GB cards because I'd seen that table and information
on it a last week when I was looking up the same information for my
non-F40fd camera.

 

I only have 1 SDHC 8GB Class-6 so my experience is very limited, and I
read that Class-6 is the fastest for SDHC and much slower than 133X. And
for CF (Compact Flash) 266X is the current fastest