Canon PowerShot A40 2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

This is my first digital camera and I have been very intimidated about finally buying one, but I have always owned and loved my Canons, so this was an easy choice for me. I also read many reviews and this camera was at the top of the list in every category including durability. I love that this camera looks and feels like a normal camera. You can use the viewfinder just like the olden days. It is larger and has the heft of a camera, not tiny like some digital cameras. Out of the box set up time was about 10 minutes. The instruction book begins at the beginning and is written in plain English with illustrations. No wonk-y mumbo-jumbo. Basically, you slap the batteries in, put the little memory card in its slot, turn it on and point and shoot. Auto focusing and flash make it SIMPLE! I was in a quandry about megapixels. I wondered if 2.1 was too low for the pics to be sharp. A couple of years ago, that was the top of the line, now, 2.1 is prehistoric. I decided to go with the A40 and 2.1 as a learning experience because the price is so low and Canons are so great. I figured after a couple of years, I'd junk the A40 and get a super megapixel camera. WRONG! This is a keeper! The photos are absolutely beautiful and crisp, even up to 8"X10". The color is absolutely accurate! My dad is a Nikon snob and even he admitted that my Canon A40 did a much better job than his Nikon 2.1 megapixel! You have the option of using the Auto mode, where the camera does everything but push its own button or you can use it like a conventional camera where you set the exposure, shutter speed, etc. There are a lot of other settings to play with if you want to, like making the colors more vivid. I did invest in a 256MG memory card because I read that the 8MG one the camera comes with doesn't hold many photos. I have shot 200 photos without a glitch or erasing any to free up memory space. I think that this is the greatest value and quality in a digital camera for any level of user that anyone could want. If you've hesitated buying a digital camera, I encourage you to make this your first digital camera. I expect to keep this baby forever!

I've had my eye on getting a digital camera for quite a while, but I waited until now for the right combination features to get within my price range. The Canon A40 was well worth the wait. Within five minutes of opening the box, I was taking great pictures with this camera. I wouldn't call the more complex features of the A40 intuitive, but with 3-4 hours of experimenting, I had figured out almost everything without opening the manual (although the manual is handy for picking up the details). Installation of the software on my XP system was a breeze. I still don't have everything figured out yet, but the basics were self-explanatory without the manual. Along with the camera, I bought 2 sets of Maha 1800mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries and the Maha fast charger. I guess I can't really say how well the batteries work because I haven't managed to run through the first charge yet! ;) I also picked up the 128 MB SanDisk flash card. The only real problem I have with the A40 is in getting the autofocus to lock correctly and consistently. The problem is especially bad indoors, where I miss a lot of easy shots that my point-and-shoot Fuji 35mm could handle easily. The camera is unable to get a focus lock on anything about 10% of the time. When it does claim that it has a lock, about 5% of the time it was actually focusing on a spot about a foot below the squares in the LCD that are supposed to show what the autofocus is locked on. The focus difficulties were almost enough for me to give the camera 4 stars, but when you consider this rare problem against the price, the features, and all of the fantastic pictures I've taken already, it's clear that this camera deserves the highest rating. One thing that I would like to see on future generations of this camera is a 4-way thumb pad like the S330 has. This would be useful when you're changing the settings, looking at thumbnails, or reviewing a picture in the viewfinder. All in all, there's no camera in this price range that comes close to the A40. The A40 is a fantastic camera with great features and gives anyone the ability to take sharp and clear digital pictures.

To sum up: This is a great camera for its price, and more. Overall: I got this gem in June and felt tempted to join the raves right away, but then I decided to wait for the impending trip across Argentina. I used it from the Andes to Iguazú, in cloudy, rainy, sunny weather; in freezing cold and on hot days; in the desert-like mountains and in the spray of the Iguazú Falls. This is one rugged camera which offers great features, especially if you are used to Canon products: I had the A-1 and still use the EOS 500N and found it supremely easy to get into the groove of this camera, in fact, this very reason won me over compared to the Sony P-50 and the Olympus D-510. I won't bother you with repeating the features, you can look them up any day on the Canon website. Remember though, the video capability is nice, but you can't turn the videos 90° - I have to watch my Iguazú sweep with my head on my shoulders... And the artistic options like B/W or Sepia (the 1900s style) are definitely cute. Also, other than many guys on this site, I consider myself a dedicated amateur and DO use all the extras and gimmicks of this camera. Battery: As is common knowledge, plain batteries won't do it. I got the Amazon Kodak set plus the Olympus charger and batteries, and there is no problem even though theoretically you are supposed to use 1600 mAh only: these have 1700 and 1850 mAh respectively (and I'm charging the 1850 Kodaks in the 1700 Olympus charger); no sweat. The new rechargeables lasted me a day of heavy picture-taking, but they seem to last longer with time. If you use it now and then, we are talking weeks and months, it might even be smarter to use standard batteries. Lens: Just great, the optical zoom equals SLR 38-105mm, which gives you many options. Forget about the digital zoom, you can do that with software on your PC. Memory card: Obviously, the 8 MB card that comes with it is a pathetic joke, but hey, do you expect your SLR camera to come with a stash of films? For a holiday, I'd recommend two cards of 128 MBs each, this gives you about 270 pix at highest size/resolution. Remember that opposed to a conventional camera, you can sit down every night with a beer/wine/cocktail/mineral water (delete as appropriate) and delete the failed shots, so you'll need a lot less takes compared to 35mm films. Card reader: Frankly, if you're not a professional photographer or terminally ill, why bother with one? I downloaded a 128 MB card in about 10 minutes, which means 135 perfect pix or about 4 secs each, or more at lower quality. Win XP seems to be even faster. And how often do you need to download that amount? Exposure: Here's the downside - if it can be considered such at this price. The camera will always lighten up the dark spots in your picture as opposed to a SLR which will find a compromise. This resulted under hazy conditions in plain white skies. Then again, you can fix this with the exposure meter by changing it to -1 or less. If you want to see examples, check out the pix at Webshots (User: chileno66, not all are with this camera!). If in doubt, don't hesitate: This is one great camera in its range!

product has great features - and would be of great value for the price if I didn't experience major problems with camera and Canon tech center. At first, the camera worked great/great pictures. Over the course of a few weeks, picture quality continued to decline until it got to a point where picture quality was aweful. I thought perhaps I wasn't using it correctly...that I had dialed in wrong settings, etc. The Canon tech center refused to believe there was a camera problem. Finally found a person at Canon who fully agreed that Camera (specifically lens mechanism)was defective...but that Canon would "fix" camera and not replace it. ... I'll get another digital camera, possibly a Sony....but do not wish to give my business to Canon, except that I've invested money in flash card reader and other Canon-related accessories. ...

No complaints about picture quality, ease of use, or software. But one big disappointment... When I saw this camera had a built-in microphone I naturally assumed it was for voice annotation of pictures. It's not. Despite having a built-in mike and even having an icon on the display to represent a picture with an audio attachment, you cannot do voice annotation. The microphone is only for "movies" - low-resolution, 10-second, video clips. Something I don't think I will ever use.

We received the camera right in time for my sister's wedding. Mother asked me to look at it and figure it out, which I was more than pleased to do. It was an excellent camera, and I was impressed with all of the features provided. Clarity was exceptional, ease-of use phenomenal, and it was a comfortable camera to use. Was is the key word. Less than a half an hour into testing it, something happened. The view suddenly became extremely blurry and quite ugly. I worked it over for another hour and a half, trying to figure out what happened. None of the manuals would help, and I couldn't find anything online. We had to send it back and use a disposable for my sister's wedding. We ordered another digital camera, but we've found that we don't like it as much and are currently trying to find another Powershot A40....

After carefully reading through literally hundreds of reviews on the 2 megapixel digital cameras with optical zoom out there at this time, and a visit to two stores to play with them in person, I decided on the Canon Powershot A40. This is why: the camera body is sturdy and it is easy to hold and shoot. It looks like a normal camera so fits in most point-and-shoot camera bags. The camera is also small enough to fit in the pocket of most cargo pants. It has many accessories available and has upgradable lenses. The camera is somewhat intuitive to use once you know what the symbols for the buttons indicate- all of them are multifunctional. The only downsides are that the knob is a little less than ergonomic and the manual is horribly organized. The camera itself is fantastic overall. It does eat batteries quickly when connected to the computer for downloading, but on the road it is very conservative (I reccommend buying the ac adapter for downloading unless you have an unlimited supply of batteries). The optical zoom flows smoothly into the digital. The software is very easy to use and you will definitely find it useful. It also comes with a lite version of Adobe- which is a great piece of software to have on it's own. What about the pictures? The pictures are fantastic! The shots are much more akin to a manual 35 mm camera than a point-and-shoot. The colors are very vivid. You'd never be able to take shots like this with a regular camera. It can take a picture in a darkened room and make it as clear as if the lights were on. All together this is a great camera and I'm glad I bought it! I highly reccommend you consider it too! (Aside, Amazon.com has better prices than ALL the retail stores, it's trustworthy and just as good as most internet stores/auctions so I suggest you buy it here.)

I have read several reviews and I personally tried the Canon A40, Pentax 230 and Sony P71 in the past 6 weeks. I took multiple pictures with each camera and compared the output on screen and in print side by side. I finally decided the A40 by Canon was the keeper. It wasn't perfect because it was bigger and heavier. Also, the menus could be better and a 4 way navigation button would have been nice. The A40 did have the best battery life of the 3 and seemed to have the best track record for most pictures in focus. The major selling point was the picture quality. The A40 provided the best exposures, most accurate colors, and prints that were the most pleasing to the eye. I figure the pictures are why you buy a camera not size and weight. When I took pictures of the same sceen with all 3 cameras, printed them up and showed them to my friends, they universally picked the shots take with the Canon as the best. It is the best value for the money IMHO.