Fujifilm's Combo Digicam-MP3 Player: Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Notes?

Fujifilm touts its new $699 FinePix 40i as a combination digital camera and MP3 player, but make no mistake: The 40i is a digital camera or an MP3 player. Forget those visions of listening to Mozart while photographing beautiful landscapes--the FinePix 40i can't take photos and play music at the same time.

What the FinePix 40i can do, however, is help you consolidate the number of gadgets you're carrying around in your bag. The price is comparable to what you'd pay to buy a digital camera and a digital audio player separately. But you will sacrifice some functionality and versatility.

An All-Purpose Digicam

The 40i is small and thin and fits easily in your hand. On the back of the camera are a 1-by-1.7-inch LCD panel and easy-to-maneuver controls. A dial lets you choose between the camera's two record modes (one for still shots and another for video) and the playback mode. You can navigate the menus using the two arrow buttons next to the display.

The 2.4-megapixel camera incorporates Fujifilm's proprietary SuperCCD sensor. The camera offers a number of manual control options, including white balance adjustment, and exposure control from -1.5 to +1.5 EV (exposure value). The lens is the equivalent of a 36mm lens on an ordinary 35mm camera; the camera lacks an optical zoom, but its digital zoom allows you to magnify images by up to 3.75X in 640-by-480-pixel mode, and 1.88X in 1280-by-960-pixel mode. The camera can take AVI recordings at 10 frames per second in 320-by-240 resolution (broadcast-quality recording is 30 fps).

Fujifilm includes a well-written camera manual to help you navigate the 40i's features. The manual features in-depth explanations of the camera and settings.

Test photos looked crisp, with realistic colors. While the camera was able to handle images shot indoors with available light well enough, thanks to the integrated flash, the videos we took inside did not fare so well. Video images were a bit dark, and showed pixellation--which means you won't want to use this camera to take memorable videos of your vacation.

The 40i also can record videos with sound up to 80 seconds long, though the voices sound like they're far away even when the subjects are standing near the camera.

Fujifilm includes a USB driver so that the camera can connect via a USB port, as well as proprietary software for viewing and printing photos. The camera also comes with a 16MB SmartMedia With ID card. While any SmartMedia card will work to capture images and video, if you want to store music on a higher-capacity card, you'll need to buy an aftermarket SmartMedia With ID, which integrates a serial number to uniquely identify it.

SmartMedia With ID is required because the camera's included InfoBind digital audio software taps the media-specific identifier on the SmartMedia With ID card before it encrypts and transfers MP3 files to the card. InfoBind was jointly developed by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone and Kobe Steel. (For ripping CDs to MP3 files, Fujifilm also bundles RealNetworks' RealJukebox.)