Rating: 
Summary: DO NOT BUY PENTAX PRODUCTS
Review: I recently bought a Pentax camera. At the start of my vacation the LCD screen burst while I was riding in the car. I was very frustrated because I could not change camera settings for the rest of my trip. The real kicker came when I sent it back under warranty. I was told, "It is not possible for there to be a defect in manufacturing. If there is no defect in manufacturing, we don't pay for repairs." In other words, there products have problems and there warranty is useless because they don't actually uphold it ever since nothing could be there fault according to their representatives.
Rating:
Summary: Disapointing Picture Quality
Review: I was really pleased with this camera for about an hour. That is, until I compared the picture quality with my old 2 mega pixel Canon Elph. I was amazed, the pictures from the S40 (with the max resolution) were distinctly worse than those from camera with lower resolution. Just goes to show, its not just the pixel count that maters. What's the point in a 4 mega pixel camera if all you get is a really well defined bad picture. Needless to say the camera went back the next day. I'm sticking with Canon for my next camera.
Rating: 
Summary: A mighty mite of a camera
Review: I've been using the Pentax S40 for the past three weeks, and am pleased with my purchase. I too selected this model because of the AA battery capability and have found the battery life to be very acceptable. I took over 100 flash pictures yesterday on a fully charged set of NiMH batteries. Spare NiMH batteries and a charger are quite cheap and most folks would carry a second set anyway. The photographic results are quite impressive. Certainly on par with my other digital camera which is the (much larger) Sony DSC-F707, though the slightly lower resolution (4mp to 5mp) would likely show on an 8x10. The viewfinder doesn't show the full size of the scene being framed on the LCD screen, but I believe this is true of most digicams. The telephoto works smoothly, and the LCD screen provides a clear and smooth look at the scene being framed. As with most LCD displays, it becomes less useful in bright sun. The camera is easy to set up and its menu system is intuitive and logical with a surprisingly large array of photographic options. It can also be used as an auto focus point and shoot camera with good results as my 12 year old daughter did recently on a school trip. Subsequently she spent a bit of time learning the camera, and now navigates the menus, etc., with ease. I'm using a 256mb Simpletech Secure Digital (SD) Pro-X High Speed card which has a much faster (10MB/sec) transfer rate than a standard SD card. The faster write speed frees the camera for its next shot much more quickly, and you won't believe how fast it transfers 256mb to a PC over a USB 2.0 (separate USB 2.0 reader needed) connection - whew! I also purchased the Pentax Optio Warranty Extension which gives this camera a full three years of coverage. I figured my family will be using this camera for at least that long. All in all, this is an excellent and fully featured camera in a very small package.
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Summary: Pentax Optio S40: a $300 Mistake
Review: June 2004: I bought this camera literally on the way to the airport for my summer trip in Europe. In four days time, I took hundreds of photos. But then the camera inexplicably locked up on me & would not let me close the lens - I tried replacing the batteries - nothing worked - the lens was frozen in the open position. Whatever made the lens lock-up - also corrupted the SD disk & none of the digital photos on the disk were retrievable. I lost all my photos! The next day, I overnighted the camera back to my parents so they could return it to the store within the 10-day return policy. Thinking it was some defect in that individual S-40 camera, they bought me another S40 (b/c I loved the small camera size) & they shipped the new S40 to me. So 3 days after I get my SECOND "new" S-40, it does the same exact lock-up & won't let me close the lens. This second lock-up involved: a different "new" S-40, a different SD card & different rechargable batteries - all the factors were different from the 1st lockup w/ the 1st S-40 camera. Again, the lockup of the lens corrupted the SD card and I could not retrieve my photos & lost them all. Frustrated & with no way to get any tech support, I simply packed the useless $300 camera in my suitcase & still haven't touched it since. I never dropped either S-40 - both of which were actively working only for about 3-4 days each. For 2 different S-40 cameras to have the same exact defect in two completely different situations - it has to be a manufacturing defect. I certainly never mistreated either of the cameras. I'm appalled to read other people's reviews that have had the exact same trouble that I just described & Pentax is not fixing their cameras under the under the warranty policy. I have yet to act on the warranty, and it sounds like it's going to be a royal hassle. Do not buy a Pentax Optio S40 digital camera - I will avoid buying any Pentax camera in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: perfect example of form over function
Review: The Pentax Optio S40 is ideal for consumers who want a small, durable, attractive camera that delivers merely tolerable performance and image quality. the lens produces invariably soft images, and the auto focus and shutter response seem to be relatively slow. My last camera was the more high-end, enthusiast-oriented Nikon Coolpix 995, but I couldn't tuck it in the pocket of my jeans and forget about it like the optio S40. In terms of aesthetics, the S40 rivals Canon's Digital Elph series, with its sleek, flat design and brushed metal exterior. Photographers seeking more versatility will want something larger, more complex, and more expensive, but casual snapshooters who want basic shots and short video clips (with sound) at parties, on trips, etc. will probably be satisfied. This camera is a pretty good deal at costco, which is the only store I know of that will accept returns on digital cameras without a 15% restocking fee. All in all, the Optio S40 is not a bad value. Compare to the Canon Powershot S410, Nikon Coolpix 3200, and Kodak Easy Share series.
Rating:
Summary: Contrary to so many others, this is one great little camera
Review: While walking thru Costco this morning I saw the Pentax Optio S40, it really looked great, I,ve owned quite a few Pentax Products and always found them to be well done with few exceptions, the S40 is no exception.
In a very impulsive mood I bought it, took it home, knew nothing about it, but was glad to see it uses AA cells, I did not read the manual, I inserted (2) fully charged 2200 milli ampere hour AA cells and my own 256 meg card, then started shooting pictures.
The results were superb, the color is excellent, required no correction at all, I took about 200 shots, the batteries are still going strong. True, on the screen, it looked like they could be sharper, when printing they were beautiful, ,,,,
Since then, I have been reading not such great things about the S40, I disagree with all, this is a first rate, beatifully made machine that is just a joy to use, I am going on a vacation shortly, the D40 will be with me.
Coul be I am lucky and got the best D40 ever made, I doubt that, I cannot recomment the camera more enthusiastically, I think I should read the instruction manual now, it could help even more
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