The FujiFilm FinePix F402

The camera is shown with its blue light on for effect - when the F402 is charging the LED remains lit, as it does for the first few seconds after being turned on. To turn on the Finepix F402, you pull back on that little part of the metal circle with the blue light (this is why we show the camera with that light on). It slides to the left a few millimeters and the camera springs to life. To turn off the camera, just push that portion of the circle back in. Below the FinePix logo is the small mic for recording audio during short films The lens is a super fujinon 1:3.2, f= 6mm with a focal length of 1.6ft to infinity. With macro turned on, focal length is 0.2ft to 2.1ft. The aperture is F 3.2/8 and the optical viewfinder in the upper right hand corner is pinhole sized, but clear. The flash is fixed and there are no provisions for a hot shoe because of the size of the camera.

The rear of the FinePix F402 is well laid out, and the controls are fairly intuitive. The tiny optical viewfinder is useful in bright conditions when the LCD may become hard to see. Adjacent to the green status LED (it glows orange when the camera is storing or transferring data) is the mode button for "film - playback - photos." The macro button is next in line followed by zoom control which does double duty as a cursor control. Last but not least is the flash control button - enabling you to turn on red-eye reduction, flash suppression, or other settings. The 1.5" (110,000 pixel) TFT LCD viewfinder really offers a superb display, rivaling the display quality of most current generation notebooks. The three buttons on top of the LCD are for display controls, and OSD navigation.

For comparisons sake, we took a picture of the top of the Finepix F402 adjacent to a standard pencil. The pencil measures about 8mm in diameter, and the F402 is a little over 2.5X that much (23mm). There is only one control on the top of the camera and that is the shutter release. In the default setting the camera gives out an audible beep when the shutter release is depressed half way for auto focusing. I'd recommend turning that beep off because for some people it can sound like the camera has taken a photo when in fact the shutter release wasn't pressed far enough.

The bottom of the F402 is bare except for a cover which protects the battery and flash memory storage compartment. On the left hand side we have a DC port for the AC adaptor to plug into. An optional docking station will allow you to recharge the camera battery, or the adaptor can just be plugged in here. In either case, it takes approximately two hours to fully recharge the 3.7V 710mAh Lithium Ion battery pack. The remaining port works as both the jack for the USB cable, and the socket for when the camera is in the docking station. There is no video out signal, but the camera can be used with Fujifilm's own software package (PictureHello) for video conferencing.