Rating: 
Summary: Sharp VE-CG40U 4MP offers near-SLR versatility
Review: This camera is causing my trusty 35mm SLR to stay in the closet. The Canon lens, identical to the one used on the Canon G2 and apparently the same in design and construction as 7-21mm f/2 zoom lenses used elsewhere under the names Carl Zeiss and Leica, is the best feature. There are plenty of exposure modes, including full manual; there's exposure bracketing and gamma bracketing, macro mode, etc. Image quality is quite good, and the regular "auto" mode handles most scenes well. The large maximum lens aperture makes this camera suitable for available-light use in most circumstances; that's good, because the built-in flash, like all built-in flashes, is best avoided except for fill with manual exposure. The bright, detailed color display is usable in daylight and very good in other conditions, and for people used to an SLR viewfinder, it's the only way to go--although those of us over age 40 will want to keep a pair of powerful reading glasses handy to see enough detail on the tiny screen.So, what would make the VE-CG40U better? (1) manual focus mode (autofocus is unreliable in low light), (2) a hot shoe for an external flash unit, (3) better battery life (NiMH rechargables are a "must," as Alkalines are drained very quickly), and (4) an eyepiece adapter for the LCD screen (easier than those reading glasses). For [$] or less, this is probably as good as it's going to get for a little while. It's not quite in the SLR class, but it isn't far from it, either. I've used mine for scenery, people, flower close-ups at near-macro range, and commercial images for the web. You can get crisp (in 35mm terms) 8x10 prints, even with some cropping, provided that your printer is up to the task.
Rating:
Summary: Bang for the Buck
Review: This is my first digital camera and I did a fair amount of research regarding price and features.This camera has the auto mode for beginners like myself that want to take pictures out of the box but also has a host of manual settings so one can learn and experiment with advanced photography techniques.As far as picture quality goes, it does take great pictures.In very low to poor lighting it helps having manual control over exposure etc.The software that is supplied is very basic but compliments Windows XP and its Picture Viewer sofware just fine.I do recommend it.Also,you should use NiMH batteries and they will last 3 times longer than regular alkalines.
Rating: 
Summary: Feature ladened , affortable, but let buyers be aware
Review: This is my third digital camera.... Since there is virtually no user review on the web, I intended to find out for myself. I played with it for a week and had to return it ... The bottom line: Great features and very affordable. Brilliant outdoor pictures. Dull, dark indoor/night pictures with flash (auto mode). Bare-bone software bundle. A battery drain. Here is my personal experience: Straight out of the box, I noticed the body of the camera is unlike some square-box cameras. The contour design let you get a good grip and make one-hand operation easy. Just want to be fair; square-box design produces a more compact camera, so this is a trade-off. The CGS LCD monitor is bright and crisp, revealing a lot of details (maybe too much). Since I got it at night, I started shooting around my house in auto mode. The pictures looked nice enough from the LCD. Then it's time to upload the picture. I loaded up the CD and the installation was typical. The package includes an AC adaptor. Very nice, I thought. Hooked up the AC and USB cable and pressed the one-touch upload button at the back of the camera. Once I played with the software, I was shocked to find out that the software is the least useful of all digital cameras that I had ever seen. There was the USB driver and upload program, and then there was a movie creator. Where is the basic image editing/photo album tool?? I couldn't view the pictures I just uploaded (unless just use IE to view the jpg files)! And I certainly did not want to create a movie with the movie creator. I ended up using the software came with my old 2 Meg-Pix camera. The images taken around the house were reasonable. But all the pictures I took for kids were very poor: the pictures appeared dark and the skin tone was very dull. That's not what I saw from the LCD! I compared the images on my computer screen to the same pictures on the LCD. The image on LCD looked fine. Maybe it's my monitor, I thought. I also tried the slide show by connecting to my TV. It's wonderful that you can share the pictures on TV with others. Next day, I took kids to the park and did more shooting. I tried some Scene Mode: Portrait, Snap Shot, Landscape, in addition to the auto mode. The LCD looked bight and crisp even in the day light. That evening, I tried the Night View Scene. I uploaded the picture that night. The pictures all looked reasonable on the computer screen. Next day, I bought some photo paper and printed out some of the pictures. In the same exact optimal setting (Canon i850 with Canon Photo Paper Pro) that was recommended by the printer vender, the pictures at the park (outdoor, day light) looked absolutely brilliant! But the pictures I took the night before were just like what I saw on the computer screen: dark and dull. I started wondering why the same images looked OK on the LCD screen. A couple of days later, we went to a Christmas play in the evening. I used to have a SLR camera before. So I switched to Manual mode and took the picture without flash (flash does have the range to reach the stage and it would destroy the colorful light projected onto the stage). It's nice that the camera has good Lens range (F2.0-F2.5) for slow shot like this. I was surprised to see the pictures came out beautifully. As to the battery usage, I took about 60 pictures, 2/3 with flash. The LCD was on 80% of the time when I took pictures. It ran through two batches of fully charged 4-AA Ni-MH (one batch 1750 mAh, another batch 1875 mAh) rechargeable batteries. This is far shorter than the listed figure on the manual: 200 images on Ni-MH (1600 mAh). Also the fact that some 4 Meg-Pix digital cameras only use two AA batteries makes this one feel like a battery drain. At this point, I decided to return .... I did not investigate further for other advanced features. For me, a family photo camera like this, I would like to use the auto mode at night for a lot of occasions. I probably could use some non-auto modes to compensate the images, or use photo software (e.g. Adobe PhotoShop) to touch up my pictures. But that defeats the purpose to have a good camera.
Rating: 
Summary: Attractive price, unattractive camera
Review: We were lured to this camera because it was 4MP and wasn't priced as high as others for the features it offered. You get what you pay for!!!!. I returned this camera after a few days of owning it. I was very dissappointed with this camera first off because it eats batteries. Make sure you have a stock of AA batteries sitting with you or a lot of rechargable batteries ready to go. Just going through the menu and learning how to make the bulky thing work took a whole set of batteries. It has a hard time focusing on what you are trying to shoot. Very slow. What you get on the LCD is not what you get later. If you want action pictures, forget about getting a clear picture. I tried all the different shooting features including the ones for low light and the pictures still came out very dark. I gave it one star because there is nothing less. If you want a camera that you can depend on the subject to be in a very well lit area and not moving than this is for you. If you want something that you know will take a great picture in every day life, DO NOT BUY THIS!!!! We actually saw someone buying one after we returned this while we were looking for a new camera. We tried to tell them, as anyone who reads this that you will just throw your money away on this. It is not worth the time or money.
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