Happy Snapper (Fujifilm Finepix 40i)

Member Name: daddy bear

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix 40i
Date:	08/08/02 (127 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quality, Size, Battery Type

Disadvantages: No optical zoom

This is great camera. Not state of the art now but now available a good prices.

I bought mine on the way out through the airport. Size was very important after excellent picture quality. I wanted to have high quality full screen pictures which would be zoom-in-able and occasionally produce high-resolution prints. The choice was between the Fuji and the Ixus. The fuji won on size - its marginally thinner so fits nicely in a pocket - but mostly on batteries. The canon has its own battery, which inevitably has to be charged before first use. The Fuji takes AAs. You do need to use the supplied rechargeables (or get higher capacity ones - spares are always useful) but you can go with regular disposable batts so its usable straight out of the box. Also if you get caught short you can buy batteries - although it eats its way through a couple of duracells in no time.

Functionality is good, picture quality excellent and a full resolution photo can be printed at A4 size and still look like a wet film photograph (I have an Epson stylus 600 printer). This has been the best gadget purchase ever.

You definitely need more storage. I also got the blue/16mb edition but have now got 2 64mb cards. SM cards are now ridiculously cheap and each one at the highest res will store 77 pictures. Storage media could be a factor in the decision - if you're all compact flash you may wish to keep to that system. Don't bother with a mains adapter just got more batteries. Mains leads can only be used within about a metre of the socket - batteries can be used anywhere.

Downloading is easy; software is supplied although you can use it without it. Just connect it to a USB port and it becomes another drive.

Contrary to another opinion here, I am pretty sure that you can have MP3 music and pictures on the same card - audio however takes up a lot of space.

I have to say mine did pack up once but it was fixed by Fuji very quickl
y and hasn't had a problem since. You do need to look after it though. I don't think its very shock proof - I think a knock is what caused the stoppage I had.

Summary: