Rating: 
Summary: Impressive Camera
Review: I'm new to digital photography and was very impressed with Canon's A40. The camera has similar features to the proven A20 model, but distinguishes itself in several ways. For example, the A40 feels solid and is very attractive. It also captures 10-30 second movie clips in AVI format which can be played on Quicktime. The movie images are a bit grainy, but movements and sounds are captured quite well. Using some software which was included with the A40, I was able to convert the AVI clips into MPEG and view them on my PocketPC. Finally, the camera is less expensive than the A20, but delivers the same quality images. My experience with the A40 pictures is that 2Mexapixels are fine. The clarity of the images is remarkable. And making short movie clips is an added benefit to getting the A40. For the price and photo quality, the A40 is an exceptional product and deserves everyone of its 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Buy 4 Megapixels Yet!
Review: This thing is sweeeet!! For the price you can't beat the Canon A40. Sure it's a 2MP camera but holy smokes folks! Look at what you get.. Tons of manual features such as f-stop tweaking and 3X optical zoom, sepia, B&W, AE/AF, 1.5" Sony display, program and full auto modes as well. It has great looks, positive feedback and total functionality. It performs and looks like a real down to business camera...not like those other chic lookin' wannabe, thin style digital cameras out there. I have looked at all the ~2.0 megapixel cameras available for the past year. I decided to buy Canon as the leader in digital photography. Prices recently dropped for the A40. I told myself one year ago that I would buy a digital camera when the 2MP's hit three hundred dollars. After all the haggling with the sales person for additional accessories was over, I ran out of the [store's] doors. Also picked up a SanDisk 128MB CompactFlash card at [local store]. I am going to invest in a premium leather case soon and will probably look at waterproof hard cases to protect my investment. When 4MP cameras with the same features drop to under three hundred dollars. in the future then I will make my next Canon purchase. I believe from reading other peoples testimonies that this camera is definitely worth your hard earned cash... It's a Canon!
Rating: 
Summary: A good camera for the money
Review: I am a novice photographer, having switched to this camera from a point and shoot that only had wide angle and telephoto lenses. The following are my opinions of this camera after 6 months and about 750 pictures: Good:
1. Excellent outdoor picture quality. If you have good light you can take pictures that stop action in mid stream and have very accurate color.
2. I mostly take pictures using the automatic mode or the program mode, which allows you to set the exposure, white balance, macro mode, etc.
3. The menu is easy to learn, although you can't navigate it quickly.
4. The lcd screen is clear and bright.
5. You can zoom in on lcd images to see if you've taken sharp pictures.
6. Using manual settings (and a tripod) you can take great indoor pictures using natural light rather than a flash.
7. You can take pictures forever using NiMH rechargeables, or if you do run out of juice you can always pop in some AA's.
8. The camera uses compact flash cards which are available everywhere and are relatively inexpensive.
9. The optional 2.4x telephoto lens is great for macro or portrait shots. I have taken some extraordinary pictures using this lens, as long as the subject is relatively close at hand. Gives that pro look where the image is clear but the background is out of focus. Bad:
1. Indoor pictures with the flash are often a disappointment, with too much red in skin tones and a yellowish tint to teeth. Very unapealing. It's hard to get that red out of the skin with Adobe Elements and still have natural looking skin tones.
2. Focusing is often problematic. As there is no manual focus, you've either got to get the camera to focus on its own or you'll get a blurry image. The subject must have contrast in order for the auto focus to work. I often have to keep shifting forward and backward to get enough contrast.
3. The 3x optical zoom doesn't make much of a difference beyond a dozen feet or so. I purchased the optional telephoto lens which adds 2.4x to the zoom, but this is still no big deal. You've got to get close to your subject.
4. There is no bracketing feature. I never heard of this until I began learning a bit about photography. With it you can pre-set a variety of exposures and take several pictures in a burst, each with its own settings. This ensures that one of the pictures is likely to come out the way you want. Too bad the A40 doesn't have it.
5. The red eye reduction mode doesn't work. Red eye is still prevalent. There is no way to add an external flash so you're stuck with red eye like it or not.
6. The lcd screen is brighter than a pc monitor, or a print out of the image. Thus an image that looks properly exposed in the lcd will be underexposed if you view it on your pc or print it out. You have to adjust your expectations - if the image looks a little overexposed in the lcd it's probably just right in reality.
Rating:
Summary: Very Impressive camera, great value
Review: I purchased the Canon A40 about 4 days ago, and have taken a few hundred pictures with it so far. I bought it to replace my old Sony FD-73, which was only a 0.3 megapixel camera. I wanted better quality and more storage options (greater capacity), so I started shopping around for a good quality 2.0MP Camera on Amazon. The picture quality is excellent. I noticed no chromatic abberation on any of the shots I took. The pictures were crisp and clear, the colors were vibrant, and the pictures were good whether taken indoors or outdoors. And, believe it or not, I'm still using the AA Alkaline batteries that came with the camera. Even after several hundred pictures, they are still working. I've read numerous reviews of cameras in this price range that drain batteries very quickly, I'm impressed that mine are still working. I also tested the video mode of the camera. It seems to automatically stop the video after about 10 seconds, I'm not sure if that setting can be changed. The quality of the video was excellent and the audio quality was good, however the size of the video is something like 320x200 pixels (I don't remember precisely), which is quite small. The 10 second video used about 3.7MB of space on the video card. As everyone knows, the 8MB card that comes with it is useless. I threw it in the trash and bought a 256 SmartMedia card, which works great. Based on the size of the pictures I took, full quality pictures at 1600x1200 averaged about 950K, while low quality pictures at 640x480 averaged about 145K. Based on that, my 256MB card should hold about 270 pictures at the highest quality and 1700 pictures at the lowest quality. I played around with the "Stitch" mode as well, which is supposed to help you paste together pictures into a panoramic shot. It was very helpful. Here's how it works: It reduces the viewscreen so you can see two shots at once. After you take the first picture, it puts it on the left side of the LCD view screen. When you're ready to take the 2nd picture, you can line up the shot with the previous picture, so they'll line up correctly when you paste them together with your PC graphics program. Supposedly, the camera automatically adjusts itself in Stitch mode so that the camera uses the exact same settings to try and keep the two pictures uniform. There seems to be no limit to how many pictures the camera will let you "stitch" together. The camera also offers numerous manual settings for the professional photographer. You can manually adjust ISO speed, shutter speed, white balance, and many other features you would expect to find on a camera with a much higher price tag. In sum, I'm very impressed with this little camera, and I think it is a great value for the price. In my opinion, 2.0MP is the perfect quality for a casual user, Cameras in this range seem to offer the best combination of value, price, and picture quality. I highly recommend it. Good luck finding this camera, it always seems to be sold out on Amazon. I guess that's a good sign!
Rating:
Summary: I love this camera!
Review: ...P>The Canon Powershot A40 is an excellent camera, especially for one at the entry-level digital camera price point ... This is the second digital camera I've owned,...P>The A40 is everything I had hoped for in a digital camera: good picture quality, USB connection, and an intuitive interface. The interface was especially good in contrast to the Olympus. Settings for resolution and compression level are separate, which is a major feature to me. The 3 available resolutions are 640x480, 1024x768, and 1600x1200. The jpeg compression levels are normal, fine, and superfine. Images at 1600x1200 and Superfine compression are quite nice indeed, with little, if any, jpeg artifacting. Focusing is done through Canon's AiAF system, which (I guess) uses artificial intelligence to help focus the lens. If you use the LCD screen when taking your pictures, 3 boxes appear representing the focus points. When pressing the shutter half-way, the boxes turn green representing the part of the image that will have the focus. This is very handy as it's hard to tell what the camera is focusing on sometimes. However, this system does get annoying at times, such as when the green boxes choose to focus on something other than what you want! This usually requires you to make an adjustment to your angle or position. In general I am pretty pleased with the focusing on the A40. ...I was afraid that I was simply expecting too much for a camera at this price point, but the Canon has shown me otherwise. Pictures with the A40 are sharpest in bright sunlight, as you would probably expect. Focusing is not quite as good in low light situations, but the AiAF is helpful in this regard. If none of the green boxes appear when you press the shutter button it's a sign that there's not enough light to get a good focus, and your image may come out blurry. There's an autofocus helper beam that's supposed to help the camera focus in low light, but it's so dim that I don't see how it can really be of any assistance. Indoors, pictures taken with the flash are pretty good, but sometimes the flash goes off outside where there is ample light, and the resulting image is quite dim. In these situations I've found it's usually best to disable the flash, though you might end up with a somewhat blurry image. Colors on the A40 are bright and vivid. There are sites you can find with great sample pictures, and I would suggest everyone find some sample photos before making a decision on any digital camera. I don't notice much, if any, bleeding of colors,...The menu system is clean and intuitive. The font for the menus is easy to read, even in bright sunlight. There is an on/off button which in photo mode causes the lens to extend or retract, or in "play" mode causes the stored images to be displayed on the LCD screen. There's a mode wheel which allows you to select Play, Auto, Program, Manual, Panorama, and Movie mode. The movie mode allows you to record short (~15 seconds on the included 8 meg CF card) movies. Most digital cameras sold today have this "Feature," however the Canon is unique in that it has a built-in microphone, so you get sound with your movie as well as video. Most cameras have no mic, so you're left with video only. One thing that was somewhat disappointing with the A40 was that it wasn't recognized as a Mass Storage Device when plugged into my Windows 2000 PC, which my Olympus was. However, this turned out to be a non-issue once I installed the A40's included software. Once the software is installed, you plug the camera into a USB port on your PC, set the camera to "play" mode, and turn it on. Canon's ZoomBrowser application then starts up, and prompts you to download all of the camera's new images (since the last time you synced, though you can set it to fetch all images, or just ones you've flagged) to your PC. On the included 8 meg card this takes less than 30 seconds when the card is full. Once the images have been transferred to my PC, I quit the ZoomBrowser app, so I can't really give you a decent review of the app itself. I prefer to do photo editing in photoshop. The A40 takes 4 AA batteries, which are included. I've had the camera for over a week and taken ~200 pictures and am still using the set of batteries that came with the camera, so I would say it has pretty good battery life. As with any digital camera, I would recommend a set of NiMH rechargables if you're planning to use the camera with any frequency (and believe me, since you're not worrying about paying for film processing, you'll be using the camera a lot more -- I take pictures of the wall just because I *can*). As I've stated above, the A40 ships with an 8 MB Compact Flash card. At the max resolution and best compression, this will hold only 8-12 images, so I plan on purchasing a 128 meg CF card. ... and it will save you lots of time running back and forth to the PC to transfer images, especially if you use a lower resolution or jpeg level -- my personal favorite is 1024 Superfine. All in all, the Canon Powershot A40 is an excellent camera for the price, is more than suitable for beginners, and is even enough to satisfy a computer-geek (but photo-newbie) like me. While you can probably get better quality by spending more, the A40 is relatively inexpensive for such a quality device.
Rating:
Summary: A superb consumer camera
Review: We got this camera as a gift, but I'd selected it after researching all available options. My wife is a pro photographer and I'm a pro computer geek, so I needed something to satisfy us both without being too hard to use. At this price range, I don't think any other digicam can beat the Canon A40. It offers excellent auto controls as well as manual options, although we rarely use these in our snapshot environments except to disable the flash. The optical zoom is satisfactory and we've not needed the additional (lower-quality) digital zoom yet. At the largest size, 1600x1200, the photos are easy to crop and suitable for printing using our inkjet all the way up to 8x10 resolution. Pictures are sharp (I'd skipped the Kodak cameras after reading their picture quality was only so-so) and colors are exactly what we see. The 10-sec high-quality movie mode (30-sec low quality) is a fun addition which we've used several times when a camcorder wasn't handy or justified. The LCD screen is large enough to do its job, the photo browser is easy to use, and the buttons are easy to get to. We replaced the included 8MB CF card with a 64MB card, which is sufficient, although there are a couple times we wish we had a 128MB card instead. However, we can fill up the 64MB card and drain a single set of rechargable NiMH batteries at the same time -- we have two sets of 4 NiMH batteries, one in the camera and one in the charger, which suits us nicely. I've plugged the camera into iPhoto on my Mac at home as well as Win95 and Win2000 PCs. Installing the software on the Windows PCs was a bit trying, but once it's there the camera integration works wonderfully. Both Mac and Windows users will be very satisfied. Most of the time the camera is used in or around our home to take family photos, so two sets of batteries and 64MB of digital film is sufficient, but those who are often out and about should consider a third set of batteries and 128MB or more of memory. As a consumer camera, though, the Canon A40 is excellent and a bargain considering all it offers.
Rating:
Summary: More Than Meets the Eye
Review: I'd been borrowing digital cameras up to now, and had learned a few things about what I liked and didn't like. When my wife convinced me to take the plunge and buy one for myself, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted. Little did I know that I could get everything I wanted and more at such a reasonable price. I researched the digital cameras in my price range, and quickly found that the Canon A40 offers more features than any other camera in its class. I especially like the fact that I can take a quick picture in the auto mode, but still have the opportunity to experiment with the manual settings. There is also a nice range of special effects, such as black and white and sepia that allow for some addtional creativity. Most people would probably dismiss the movie mode as a gimmick, but it is a lot of fun to play with. Keep in mind that you'll probably want a larger flash card and some rechargeable batteries. Since the A40 uses the widely available CompactFlash and AA batteries, I was able to get a 128 MB card, two sets of batteries, and a good charger for less than [$$$] I'm very glad I bought the A40,...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Picture Quality - Great for Average User
Review: I have been shopping for a digital camera for about 6 months now and was told that I should get at least a 3-4MP camera. Since I had not been able to afford one yet, I borrowed this camera from my father and took it on vacation with me. It was quick to learn, easy to use, convenient and had all the features I needed. The most surprising thing was the quality of the photos when I got back home. It self adjusted so well to different lighting and there isn't a single photo out of the 180 that I took that needs to be adjusted. The print quality was crisp and smooth (I did not expect them to be since it was only 2MP). I printed my photos to 4x6 and they are great. I am really pleased with the camera and will be buying one for myself soon. There is no need to spend hundreds of dollars more when this camera has everything the average person needs.
Rating:
Summary: I wouldn't own ANY other Digital Camera!
Review: I searched reviews information and asked tons of ?'s before making my decision to purchase this camera. And I am so happy to own it. I am not an expert at digital or computer stuff and this camera was so easy to use. I have replaced my 35mm & 110 camera with this camera. I purchased some rechargeable batteries and a ac adapter & it has been great! Very pleased! I'm not one for reading instructions and I just read enough to operate, If I were to sit down and read the rest I'd be able to do even more with my camera. This is the best camera out there! Originally I was going to purchase the A20, but found that it was going to be discontinued so I went with it's replacement (and I love it!). I sell a bit on ebay and this is a great easy to use camera that takes super pictures! If your planning to purchase I'd purchase this camera or one of it's newer ones for better picture (I'm sure the newer ones of this brand are even better - but they will stick to the basics and keep it easy to use). I paid more than what it's going for now, but that's technology for you. Anyways, I rate 5 star due to easy use, small camera (can take to party's and such), and it's a great replacement (to get rid of those camera's that use film). I have saved tons of money just on not buying film!
Rating:
Summary: Great overall Camera
Review: i have this camera and have also the Wide angle adapter kit. altho the wide angle adapter kit does not work with the flash (the wide angle lense blocks about 70% of the flash causing that 70% to be unlit) you can still take wide-angle photos if there is good light and it works great without the wide-angle lens under all lighting conditions. i wish it had some better flash settings, but it takes decent photos and i use a USB CF adapter to archive my photos to my PC. i have used some of the advanced settings to take 15s shutter speed low light photos and things like that and was impressed, but mainly i use it for family photos. The batteries last a long time with the flash and the preview screen on. For more serious photos, i'd consider the PowerShot A80 or maybe a Digital SLR camera that records RAW data.
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