Rating: 
Summary: Best you can get....
Review: This is my 3rd digital camera. I owned the Canon s100, which because of its size it's OK, but I was never amazed with the pics I got, specialy in the dark. Then I got the Nikon Coolpix 775, which I was never happy with, I think the Canon s100 was better; then I found this WONDER... the Canon S40, and now I can say I'm amazed the great camera this is. I wont change this camera for any other in the market today.In brief, if you are looking for a realy GREAT digital camera, this is it. I recomend this for amature or advanced users. I use ofoto printing and have the best prints you can imagine, even large 20 x 30 inch posters with great resolution. I do recomend a 128MB flash card or larger.
Rating:
Summary: If you go RAW, you gotta go 9.
Review: One of the reasons I bought this camera was that both Apple and Canon advertise it as OSX compatible, which is not completely accurate. If you want to record images in Canon's RAW format, you can only download them onto OS9, using Canon's image manager, included in the box. There is a noticable difference between RAW and the highest JPEG setting, especially when you start cropping and blowing up. The good news is that images stored in 9 can be retrieved by Photoshop on 9 or 10, after you have used the Canon manager to transform RAWinto TIF files. (JPEG downloads on 9 and 10, but on 10 you have to export from i-photo for Shop to find them.) Actually, switching back and forth between 9 and X is good exercise.
Photos taken at the highest settings are of excellent quality. Movement by subject or photographer is a major concern considering the shutter pause, especially when trying to grab a quick, spontaneous shot. Otherwise, the camera is solid, handsome, and a real champ.
Rating:
Summary: Spectacular through and through
Review: I recently bought this camera to accomodate both my budding interest in digital photography and my desire for a great point-and-shoot vacation camera. I am a very, very loyal Sony customer and was all set to buy their new 4 megapixel camera until I started looking into Canon. Granted, it's not quite as small as the Sony, and it just doesn't have the same design elan, but when you get down to what counts - the ability to take fantastic pictures - I don't think any other 4MP out there can beat it. The reviewers at the online digital photography review sites seem to agree. I found it for a reasonably good price and decided to take the leap. As promised, it took fantastic point-and-shoot pics and even better manually adjusted shots. There did seem to be a little trouble with some of the automatic settings wherein the picture came out a bit blurry, but futzing with the setting seemed to help a lot. All in all, though, I have nothing but praise for this small little wonder. (In case you're worried, the body of this thing is extremely solid. It's primarily made of metal - not plastic like most others out there.) The great thing is that the S40 does it all. I took great close-ups of flowers, action shots of a dog running, landscape shots, portraits of friends. All of these shots have an almost professional quality and cause every one who sees them to comment on how well they turn out. In almost every case, the colors are true - never too dull, never over saturated. The focus is very sharp, as well. And since it's a 4MP, you can make nice sized prints - at least 8x10 - without making them appear pixelated. Overall, the camera is easy to learn. The controls can be a bit complex, but the manual is clear. For those who prefer the trial and error method, the S40 won't pose too much trouble. Everything is fairly intuitive, however, and even confirmed technophobes get the hang of it after a while. One hint: Be sure to adjust your screen for maximum resolution before viewing the pictures. The CCD on the S40 is far crisper than most monitors, and so shots might not appear in their full splendor unless you make the screen resolution very, very high. A few caveats: the accompanying software - ZoomX Browser, or some such - is pretty basic. You can't do much with it, even compared to the stripped down (and much better) Adobe programs out there. Also, I'm using the camera on both an XP machine and on a Windows ME machine. With XP, the computer reads it just like another hard-drive, making it exceptionally easy to grap and import photos. With ME, it's a bit buggier. I needed to call Canon's tech support (helpful and quick to answer the phone, by the way) in order to resolve conflicts between the camera and my printer. Anyway, this camera is well worth the investment. It won't make you a pro, but it will at least make your shots look that way.
Rating:
Summary: Best value for this class of camera
Review: 4mp cameras are really just coming on the market in force, and this camera is a bit better value than most. With its 3x optical zoom, all-metal construction, and features like photostitch (virtual panoramic shots) and movie mode, it is at the top of its class. It is a great camera to grow into; this is our second digital camera, and we have moved from the PHD (push here, dummy) features on up to advanced things like manual shutter speed, white balance, etc. I love it!!
Rating: 
Summary: Nice - but it's still a toy
Review: Recently I borrowed the S40 from my local photo dealer with a firm intention of buying it unless something really unexpected turned up. With all the great reviews everywhere, my expectations were high when I started exploring the thing. And the S40 surely is a nice camera: beautiful finish, good controls (apart from the multi-controller which is too small and unstable), impressive sharpness and colours and a lot of manual-control possibilities. And once you get familiar with the menus it is easy - but not very fast - to operate the camera. But I returned the S40 because: 1) The lens suffers from huge barrel distortion. The camera is simply uncapable of reproducing a straight line outside the centre of the picture. Most zoom lenses - even on SLR's - suffer to some extent from this disease, but this is about the worst I've ever encountered. The problem is present at all focal lenghts within the S40's range, but worst in wideangle mode. Buildings and plane surfaces bulge out in an almost psychedelic way which is very unnatural and unpleasing - to my eye, at least. It is a mystery to me why this phenomena is so seldomly mentioned in reviews. Once you are aware of it, you will notice immidiately. Maybe the lens on the Canon G2 performs better in this respect (I haven't tried it yet). But then you might as well bring your old SLR, since the G2 is too bulky for your pocket anyway. 2) The coverage of the optical viewfinder is ridiculously small. You get at least 25% more in the final picture than you see in the viewfinder. Since the LCD-screen is useless in bright light (and will drain your battery faster than necessary) this means that a lot of cropping will be needed. In reality you will often waste a megapixel or more before you hold the final result in your hands. If you are into careful edge-to-edge picture composing you should consider other alternatives than the S40. But, sadly, most viewfinders I have seen on digital cameras are even worse than this. Why don't any manufacturers produce a compact digital camera like the S40, but with a decent viewfinder, an option for external flash and a fast high-quality lens with a fixed focal length equal to the classic 35 mm (in other words: a mini Leica)? I would buy it on the spot. 25 years ago the market was flooded with small, inexpensive compact 35 mm cameras like this. I own one of the kind (the classic Ricoh 500G), and it still takes extremely beautiful pix. With the possibily of auto-exposure, fully manual controls and without trigger delay, fisheye-infected perspective or ridiculous vignetting. I want a digital version. Someone give it to me, please! In my opinion the S40 is a great (but slightly expensive) pocket companion for snapshots and everyday non-critical use. But if you are looking for a serious alternative to a good SLR or viewfinder camera, this is not it. I, at least, will save my money for tomorrow, when a digital SLR-body comes within my financial reach. Sadly, I dare no longer hope for a compact digital camera with a decent lens.
Rating:
Summary: Great Photos! Great Camera!
Review: You need to spend a good deal of time with it to get a grip on all of the features. Other than that, It's a great camera. You realy should upgrade to a larger memory card if you want to take hi-res photos. The main reason I wrote this review is to point out that even though the tech specs say this camera is not compatable with Mac OSX, it in fact is. iPhoto has no problem recognizing the camera, neither does the image capture utility. You will need to use image capture to transfer any mpeg movies to your computer.
Rating:
Summary: superb
Review: Bought this camera two months ago, and just love it. Strongest points include fabulous pictures, compact size, ease of use and looks
Rating:
Summary: Satisified customer
Review: After much research, I decided the Canon S40 was for me. I purchased a 256mb card also. After two weeks of use, I am quite satisified with my purchase. I had read in a review or two that the flash was only mediocre performance. The reveiwer must have a pretty high standard because I so far cannot find fault with the flash performance. I am also impressed with the camera battery charge time, usually in less than an hour after low battery alarm comes on. I had planned to purchase a second battery, but I may not need to do that now. I do find the sliding lens cover to be somewhat flimsy when not fully open or closed, but that is about the only detriment so far. Overall, I think I made the right purchase and Amazon's delivery was very good also.
Rating:
Summary: Best for what is was designed for
Review: I have been shopping for a digital camera since November 2001 until now (May 2002) and finally found what I think is the best compromise digital camera in the market, everything considered. Once I decided that nothing is going to replace my SLR system for speed, flexibility, or quality of image for all situations (at any price range?), then it became clear I had to accept some compromises. I simply wanted a compact digital camera that produced high quality photographs - not snapshots. Why take pictures if the potential quality is not going to excellent? It is a false economy to invest in a camera that does not even have the capability to produce high quality photographs. I think this camera has overcome that burden and has the potential. It is not perfect on an absolute scale (so it really shouldn't get 5 stars), but for what it delivers, it is a buy. Some compromises:
Since it IS compact, the controls are small and the on-screen icons are small and a little hard to read. All the functionality is there if you want full control, but you need to master the manual pretty well to get full use of it AND be fast on the draw to navigate the controls to get the results you want in fast changing photo situations. The auto-focus and exposure lag is still not what it should be and is not fast enough to replace a manual SLR. The lens is slow (f2.8 wide angle and f4.9 telephoto) limiting use in low light situations without a flash. But, it is sharp. Like other people have said, get a 128 MEG flash card, an extra battery, and a USB flash card reader for your computer to make this a fully functional package. I consider this camera as my quick "take-along" camera that can produce high quality images when I don't want to lug around my SLR gear. I tried it for sports photography but it is too slow and without enough zoom (3x, to about 100mm 35mm standard). It is also for my wife, who can use it as a point-and-shoot and get superb results.
Rating:
Summary: Takes not only great pictures - looks good too
Review: First I need to state that I am not a camera specialist. However, when it comes to buying a new product, particularly electronics, I go through most of what is for sale at that moment. Reading lots of reviews of various cameras for a couple of days on the internet gave me some ideas of the cameras which were among the best on the market at that time and I ended up with the Canon Powershot S40. I had some basic criteria's for what my camera should do. (1) - It should be small and portable. The Powershot S40 is a small and compact camera, although it is a bit heavier than other cameras with the same size. However, since it is made of metal, it gives you a sturdy feeling. Being small and portable is the property that might decide weather or not you will be able to capture those moments that occur every now and then. (2) - It should take great pictures. The Powershot S40 takes pictures with good quality (based on my weeks of experience) and with its 4 million pixels, you can easily select a part of a picture and still have nice resolution. By having 4 million pixels it is easy to select a part of an image (cropping) and print/use that one, for example the upper right corner of the picture is all I want or maybe just the face of your girlfriend to put in your wallet. If the number of pixels are to few you might not be able to use this technique. Also, since of the high resolution, you can easily print sharp nice pictures. (3) - It should be simple but at the same time have the possibility to let me "grow into the camera". The Powershot S40 provides a fully automatic mode that allows you to take those simple "point and shoot" pictures. The camera has several pre-defined modes for different occasions (night scene, landscape, portrait and so on) that make the camera easy to use. Furthermore, the camera allows you to adjust many parameters (if you want to) such as shutter speed, aperture priority and ISO film-speed. After a couple of weeks of use I have been able to take pictures that I have never been able to take before using an automatic camera, for example in dark conditions, night shots and so on. These photos can now be made good. However, nothing is perfect. There are 3 things one must have in mind when deciding to buy this camera listed in importance order: (1) - You need more memory. The provided memory card is way too small. You need at least 128MB in order to not have to transfer pictures to your computer so often. On one 128MB card I usually store around 100 pictures. 128MB cards are quite affordable today. (2) - You need an extra battery. Using only one battery is ok for most situations, but these days when you are taking more photos, for example at a party when you are showing the pictures to your friends using the LCD screen of you camera, the battery will not last. Having a spare battery solves this problem. I guess it is possible, but you will have to work hard in order to use up 2 batteries in one day. Recharging a battery is very fast, usually between one and 2 hours. (3) - The camera is a bit heavier than other cameras with the same size. This is not a problem to me though. With its small size I could (before I bought a camera bag) carry the camera in the pocket of my jeans. Enough said. I strongly recommend this camera that is suitable for most users. It produces great pictures and it provides a lot of possibilities for manual adjustments together with a nice set of predefined automatic operation modes. Remember, the Canon Powershot S40 does not only take great pictures, it looks good too.
| 
