Review: Fujifilm Finepix A400 digital camera

Fuji’s cheap camera has a specification similar to Canon’s offering: 4.1-megapixel images, a lesser but still useful 3x optical zoom and a 1.8in LCD screen.

Thrown into the mix is a 16MB card to supplement a 12MB internal memory. The A400 can also shoot low-resolution video clips alongside Jpegs. Again, power comes from standard AA batteries.

Like the other budget compacts on test here, the build is a mix of mainly plastic with some metal details. There’s no rubber cover for the USB, power-in and video-out ports, and it feels lightweight until the batteries are inserted.

Once the time and date have been set, the camera takes three to four seconds to power up – that’s a bit on the slow side. The visibility of the LCD screen is slightly murky, although there’s an optical viewfinder immediately above as a compositional alternative.

Light-sensitivity peaks at ISO400 suggesting this isn’t a camera for shooting interiors without flash. Four scene modes cover the common ground of portrait, landscape, sport and night-shooting, while close-ups can be captured at a distance down to 10cm.

When shooting in natural light, some highlight detail is lost and, if anything, there’s a tendency to overexpose. For most, though, this will make for vividly colourful images, which is doubtless Fuji’s intention.

A similar boxy shape to the likes of the F20 and F30 higher up in the Fuji range, the impression the A400 gives is that of a compact whose features have been compromised to an extent to bring it in at this low price point.

This article is part of a group test of digital cameras costing £100 or less.
See also:
Acer CE-6430
Benq DC C540
Canon Powershot A430
Olympus FE-170
Pentax Optimo M10

A table of features can be read via our pdf download above.