Rating: 
Summary: A good alternative to 35 mm
Review: I am a serious amateur photographer with several years of experience with multiple Canon products. I primarily take travel and outdoor photos and bought this camera to have a small digital camera to take when I did not want to lug my full 35 mm system around as it weighs almost 3 lbs. I found that I would not take the camera and several times missed great shots because of this.After waiting a couple of years for the megapixels to increase in smaller cameras, I purchased this before a trip to Hawaii last December. I took this camera and left the 35 mm at home. Overall, the camera functions remarkably well for its size. it has most modes of the Canon EOS system and the operation is very intuitive. It is a little slippery and I recommend extreme caution when handling this as it does tend to slip away from you. The pictures of my Hawaii trip turned out very well. The metering was accurate on all but the most difficult shots. For those difficult shots, I was able to adjust the exposure compensation to get the exposure dead on. The lens seemed to work well at all focal lengths; however, at telephoto, the aperature is very high and shots seemed to beg for a tripod. The flash works well up to a range of 15 feet. When I returned home, I printed all of my shots with an HP deskjet 960 on quality paper. I found that the resolution was adequate at the 5x7 size; but bad at 8x10. This is a limitation of the format and not the camera. I think that I will take this camera along with the 35 mm systems on my future vacations. This is a wonderul tag along camera but no substitute for the resolution of a good 35 mm system for those "money" shots. All in all, this is the perfect camera for someone who would like to have a small quality camera that they can fit in their pocket or bag with no worry. I would recommend an extra battery to have on standby and at least a 128mb memory card.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, very small, but very poor manual focus
Review: This camera is wonderfully small - it easily fits in a pants pocket and because of its built in sliding lens cover, it's very safe there. I use it with a 1G IBM Microdrive without any hitch. It has all the basic features of a good point-n-shoot and the user-interface is very well designed. The image quality is good but because of the limits of such a small lens, obviously not for high end use. Although I highly recommend this camera, the only complaint I have about it is that although it does have a "manual" focus mode, unlike SLR cameras, this one is dependent upon using the LCD screen to judge focus and the image on it while focusing is way too low of a resolution to allow for me to judge focus. Put simply: the auto focus is good and the manual focus is unusable. If you want a small digital camera that you can put in your pocket or throw in your bag, this is a great choice.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Camera in NYC
Review: This is a great camera. Small. Great pictures. Great features. Dependable. I spent 1 year looking for the right 4 megapizel digital camera ... and I've now owned it for 3 months and couldn't be happier. I carry it in my pocket almost all the time and have taken over 2000 pictures. Everyone who sees me with it, wants one. Price is a little high but it's worth it! I highly recommend it. I'm going to pick up the waterproof case so I can take it scuba diving with me. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Just amazing
Review: I bought this camera one month ago. I took about 700 pictures and had some of them printed at Ofoto. The result was just amazing. Sharpness, color etc... I have no complain. So far I just used point to shoot feature. There are many good features that I am getting into now.
Rating:
Summary: A small wonder
Review: I had the S20 before this, and I can't believe the improvement. Like so many others, my S20 had the bluewash problem that was annoying even though correctable with image processing. The S40 has no such problem. I was also skeptical that I would see a difference upgrading from 3.2 to 4.0 megapixels, but the images do appear much sharper. The zoom (3x as opposed to 2x on the S20) is easier to use and more responsive and the LCD display is also brighter and sharper. The S40 has tons of manual options, some of which I have not yet explored (such as sound recording capabilities). Additionally, Canon has now added the rechargable battery and charger to the package, which is a big plus. The battery is also more compact and lighter. The only annoyance there is that the AC adapter is a separate option, which is an inconvenience and a neccessity if you want to transfer the images from the camera to your computer without use of an external card reader (which is also an extra if you decide to go that route.) All in all, the S40 is a sleek little camera with amazing photographic quality. It is perfect for people wanting a point-and-shoot digital camera of the highest quality and portability that is self explanatory right out of the box. (I would recommend reading the manual for the more advanced and manual opperation features.)
Rating:
Summary: Happy with Canon S40
Review: I'm happy with the S40. It's equal to my APS camera in camera size and image resolution, more control over the image, and no more waiting for film to be processed. My only complaint is that the included Zoom Browser software for Windows 98 is not very robust. I permanently killed mine by trying to open a directory with too many images (400+). Now it dies on startup. Even reinstalling the software doesn't help. Oh well, ThumbsPlus and Photoshop do the same thing.
Rating:
Summary: It doesn't get any better than this!!!
Review: Nuf Said!
After 6 months of research finally the perfect camera was born- A top quality pocket size camera with every conceivable feature (Audio & Video to all manual controls). Thank You Cannon! I'm glad someone figured it out.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Camera
Review: This is my first digital camera and I am very impressed. It is the most functional point-and-shoot camera (aside from the quality of pictures). It is very easy to use even with all the bells and whistles. It works basically like a high quality 35mm camera except that the quality in the pictures is astounding. It also has the ability to produce 30 to 180 second mpeg's. This is a nice feature especially to attach them to e-mail's. Maybe the nicest aspect of the camera is the software package included. The installation was a breeze and the programs ran perfectly without any glitches. It was probably 20 minutes from the time I opened the box to when I was downloading my first pictures. The only downside to this camera might be it's size. As small as it is I am afraid I will drop it and break it. Other than that, this camera is fantastic and definitely a great buy.
Rating:
Summary: A nearly professional-grade camera at an affordable price!!
Review: All that I can say is "WOW." The Canon S40 has met, and exceeded my expectations. This is not my first digital camera, I also own a Sony Digital Mavica FD-72. A few months ago I realized that the Sony was not performing well in any situation where the lighting was less than ideal (Bright sunny days or bright indoor lighting). My first question was "What am I doing wrong?" So I purchased the book Digital Photography For Dummies® by Julie Adair King from Amazon. After reading through the first 5 chapters, and surfing several Mavica websites, I began to realize that it wasn't me but the camera I was using. So I began my quest for a better camera. I based my requirements on recommendations from the aforementioned book and website reviews. What I desired was a camera that was simple enough for a novice to use but also had enough, more advanced, settings for difficult lighting situations. An additional requirement was the size. My Sony Mavica is almost as big as a digital video camera, I wanted something smaller. The next major requirement was the photo size. The largest picture that my Mavica will take is 640 x 480. Other requirements included a view-finder in addition to a LCD screen, long battery life, and lots of storage capacity. The Mavica had a LCD screen only, it was difficult to see in bright sunlight. In addition, the Mavica drained the battery quickly and a floppy disk only holds about 1.5 megs. The Canon S40 met all my requirements at a reasonable price. So far I've only used the Auto, or novice, mode and have yet to get a bad picture. I've tested my two cameras side by side and the Canon always excels. I highly reccommend this product. BTW, I first considered the Canon Digital Elph, model S300 because of the price. However, the Elph lacked the more advanced feartures like manual shutter control and apateur. I'm now glad that I paid a little more and the S40 is not that much bigger.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice camera from Canon.
Review: I'm a Canon guy and like most of what they put out, and this is no exception. It's a very sleek little package. Four megapixels, 3x zoom, auto and manual modes, a fairly long lasting rechargable battery, all in a tiny metal body. I prefer this over the newer Nikon consumer digicams (the 775 and the 885) because the body is built better, the resolution is higher, and the Canon has manual modes. I only gave this camera four stars because of a couple reasons: a. It's visibly less sharp than other cameras in this resolution range. Not a lot less, but enough to notice. The color is great, but the pictures aren't quite as sharp as the ones the S40's big brother (the G2) produces. b. The macro mode (or should I say lack thereof) isn't very good. I find it odd that Canon hasn't worked on improving this in their newer model cameras; pretty much all of the Nikons have *excellent* macro modes. Other than that, it's a sweet little package. I like the fact that the play-mode button is no longer part of the control dial. You no longer have to move the camera out of whatever record mode you're currently in to get into the play mode. The play-mode is controlled by a little standalone switch on the back of the camera. Slide it across once, you go into play mode, slide it across again, you go into record mode. Another positive is the long lasting lithium-ion battery (which has a quick charge time and does not require draining before recharging). Highly recommended for most users. If you think you'll be making a lot of large sized prints with the camera (i.e. bigger than 8x10), you might check out the G2 instead.
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