Stylish - people comment how nice it is. Fun - Menus, the way it slides on/off, etc. make it fun to use, not like a tool. Decently fast AF - you can push the button halfway to lock AF, and in about 1/2 second, it gets the job done. Faster than the slower AF on the Minolta Xt, and feels repsonsive in most situations. You can make a full press at anytime, and it'll take the picture regardless of AF lock (a bonus if you just have to get a shot no matter what focus). Long battery life - You can run it over a few hours and not worry. The larger 1000mAh (or so, depending on battery revision) is definitely larger than the smaller <700mAh on other digicams of this size or smaller (eg. Casio EXILIM, Canon, etc.). Bargain - at the $120 I picked it up for for a nice 2MP digital camera. Good color balance - Daylight, indoor, mixed lighting - generally gets you a decent color balance despite the tricky situations. Quite good vs. film, and I like the performace thus far. Flash performs well and is powerful enough to light up typical group scenes at night. Not too slow to start up, although the Minolta Xt/XG & Casio EXILIM series do startup even faster (newer digicams than the F401 though).

Flip up SmartMedia card eject lever. Yet another little thing to worry about, but the way it's designed, you don't have any space to put your fingers to pull that card out by hand. Made of metal, but hope I don't forget to retract it before I close the bottom hatch! Noisy images in 4MP mode - FujiFilm upscales the images in 4MP mode from the 2MP sensor data, but it really doesn't match the quality of a 4MP Canon S400 at all. Noisy, not so sharp, etc - you really can't make a sharp 8x10" print (I've tried after taking a wide shot of soda bottles on shelf at a supermarket - labels and text are just a touch too soft at 8x10"). 4x6" prints are great however, and you will not have to worry about making a great 4x6" print at all. 800 & 1600 modes are really, really grainy and noisy vs. the latest digicams made today, and aren't worth using. Image-to-Image shots and review is a touch slower than the latest digicams, so expect about a second or two in record mode between each shot before you can take another; and expect a <1 second, but noticable delay reviewing the next image in playback (4MP images; smaller ones load faster). Tripod socket not centered (may tip).

A bargain in a 2MP digital camera if you're looking for something stylish, runs for a long time, focuses decently fast, and does a very good job on 4x6" prints. Overshadowed by the latest 4+MP digital cameras from Canon, etc., but then again, those are easily $250+ whereas you can find the F401 on ebay and elsewhere for <$150. That said, great pick for a nice 4x6" digital camera due to the excellent print performace at this size; a poor choice for those wanting 8x10" or larger prints due to the 2MP image size, heavy noise levels at the interpolated 4MP image size (highest available), and resulting softer, noiser images than other digicams such as the Canon S400 with a true 4MP sensor.

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Careful about plugging in the AC adapter plug into the side of the body. The way the internals are designed, the USB/AC plug in the camera is held in place by one screw on a floating connection between the USB/AC plug motherboard and another part. You can pop that one screw loose after a few hard insertion/removals of the AC plug, although it is easy enough to disassemble the entire case to screw it back (with super glue to hold it there for sure!). Still, a problematic thing for some users for sure!

Similar Products Used:

Fujifilm 40i Nikon 3200 Canon S400 Minolta Xt Fuji 2800