Rating: 
Summary: Great camera ¿ average autofocus
Review: I've had my eye on getting a digital camera for quite a while, but I waited until now for the right combination features to get within my price range. The Canon A40 was well worth the wait. Within five minutes of opening the box, I was taking great pictures with this camera. I wouldn't call the more complex features of the A40 intuitive, but with 3-4 hours of experimenting, I had figured out almost everything without opening the manual (although the manual is handy for picking up the details). Installation of the software on my XP system was a breeze. I still don't have everything figured out yet, but the basics were self-explanatory without the manual. Along with the camera, I bought 2 sets of Maha 1800mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries and the Maha fast charger. I guess I can't really say how well the batteries work because I haven't managed to run through the first charge yet! ;) I also picked up the 128 MB SanDisk flash card. The only real problem I have with the A40 is in getting the autofocus to lock correctly and consistently. The problem is especially bad indoors, where I miss a lot of easy shots that my point-and-shoot Fuji 35mm could handle easily. The camera is unable to get a focus lock on anything about 10% of the time. When it does claim that it has a lock, about 5% of the time it was actually focusing on a spot about a foot below the squares in the LCD that are supposed to show what the autofocus is locked on. The focus difficulties were almost enough for me to give the camera 4 stars, but when you consider this rare problem against the price, the features, and all of the fantastic pictures I've taken already, it's clear that this camera deserves the highest rating. One thing that I would like to see on future generations of this camera is a 4-way thumb pad like the S330 has. This would be useful when you're changing the settings, looking at thumbnails, or reviewing a picture in the viewfinder. All in all, there's no camera in this price range that comes close to the A40. The A40 is a fantastic camera with great features and gives anyone the ability to take sharp and clear digital pictures.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific Camera
Review: Finally got my first digital camera, and feel like I really scored with this one. There are some 2MP cameras available for less money, but the features of this one make it really stand out:
* Extremely simple operation, but with the chance for manual control
* Convenient USB interface
* TV interface cable - my family was looking at full-screen pictures minutes after arriving home from a theme park (the camera can scroll through them automatically)
* Movie mode
* Auto-stitch mode to create seamless panoramics And the image quality seems quite good. I've been told these things eat batteries, so we got NiMH batteries and charger, and will carry some alkalines for backup. My friend had recommended Canon's Elph to me for about the same price, but I like the more substantial, "real-camera" feel. All in all, a very nice camera for a reasonable price.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product
Review: I've been using this camera for two weeks and I am impressed. It is a good choice for those who has no experience in digital photography, or have some. Quality of the pictures is really good. However, you MUST get a larger memory card and rechargeable batteries. Otherwise, you'll feel frustrated.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome camera
Review: All I can say is that this is an amazing camera. It does everything you'd ever want to do and the picture quality is great. I just did a panarama and it's so cool, it connects all the pictures together for you. Very cool camera. You should how ever buy some rechargeable batteries and a larger compactflash card.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome camera for 2 MegaPixel.
Review: It's my first Canon Digital camera purchase after owning olympus 1.1 Meg Pixel D340L. A40 delivers fine quality images and just the design and handling of the camera makes it so comfortable to hold and take pictures. It's so addictive that you just want to keep taking picture and fill up the 8MB card. So, I bought two seperate 64MB cards and they can take all the picutres I want. I've used it for taking small video shots also in AVI format and the included AV cable comes handy. I could then convert my AVIs into MPEG and burn them onto VCD for viewing pleasure on TV along with the slide shows. All in all, a great camera for the price and delivers good quality sharp pictures deom an impressive device.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!!!!
Review: I could tell you a bunch of details...but, I will make it simple, This camera is easy to use and takes Great pictures. Like everyone says, get at least a 128mb Compact flash card and a good set of rechargeable batteries. I did and I love this camera. The pictures are great! I don't think I can say that enough. If you are looking at any other cameras...stop and buy this one. You will love it. Just like I do. Happy shopping.
Rating:
Summary: ...amazing piece of technology!
Review: Color: great, accurate color when shooting outdoors and under the studio lighting. All in all though, the A40 produced unusually appealing color. Exposure: The A40 did a great job with exposure, capturing great midtones both indoor and outside. A40's exposure system worked very well, but did show a tendency to lose highlight detail in very contrasty lighting conditions. Sharpness: Image sharpness was good for a two-megapixel camera, with crisp details throughout the frame. Optical distortion was a bit better than average at the wide-angle lens setting. Closeups: The A40 came in a bit below average in the macro category, capturing a rather large minimum area of 6.56 x 4.92 inches. Color, detail, and resolution were all great, however. Night Shots: The A40 did unusually well for an entry-level camera in my low light shooting tests. Some of the lower light level shots had slightly soft focus, but results were good overall. The camera's noise reduction system did a reasonably good job of eliminating image noise. Battery Life: Battery life on the A40 is very good. In its worst-case power consumption mode (capture mode with the LCD screen turned on), it should run about 3 1/2 hours on a freshly-charged set of high-capacity NiMH AA batteries. With the LCD screen off, it can run for over 20 hours straight. Playback mode run time should be about 5-6 hours. This is really excellent, but you'd better purchase a couple of sets of rechargeable batteries still holds. Conclusion: The A40 is a nicely-designed, stylish, functional camera that take great pictures. The A40 has a nice sharp lens, and excellent color rendition. The Movie capture mode makes the A40 great for recording short clips of special events, while the Stitch-Assist mode lets you capture expansive panoramic shots. The 2.0-megapixel CCD produces good image quality, with enough detail to print images as large as 8x10 inches. If you're looking for a good entry-level camera with a range of options and excellent picture quality, you need look no further than the A40. Pros:...Very good photo quality...
-Easy to use in point-and-shoot or manual modes
-Excellent software bundle
-Supports external lenses, underwater case
-Solid Construction
-High quality lens, Software, CCD add up to great pictures.
-Lots of manual controls over exposure, f-stop, ISO etc. -Continous shooting at 3 frames/sec.
-Built-in lens cover, so there's no worries about lens caps
-Very good manual (177 pags) Cons: -No rechargeable batteries included
-Sometimes slow shutter speed
-No uncompressed file format (TIFF or RAW) only saves as JPEG
-Macro mode not up to rest of the camera features
-Drains regular Alkalines fairly fast
-8MB memory won't be enough
Rating:
Summary: No compromises.
Review: For the vast majority of digital camera users, this A40 will meet all of their needs well into the future. The Canons have a fine reputation for durability and if ever there is a problem, service has been excellent. The A40 in the entry model in a series of sturdy digicams that offer progressively higher resolutions, but little else in terms of functionality. As I have stated in numerous reviews of other digicams, resolution much beyond 2 megapixels is worse than useless for *most* applications, it is costly. It not only costs money in the sense that it raises the initial price of the camera, but operationally, it requires greater battery use, usually involves longer lag times between shots, takes much longer to download to a PC and especially prolongs both phases of e-mailing photos (your uploading the file and your recipient opening it). These latter issues are, in my opinion, the most important, as the real purpose of digital cameras is their neat integration into the world of personal computing. [note: For those folks whose needs are enlarging photos beyond 8" x 10", higher resolution is required] The other features of the A40 worth noting are its very adequate 3X optical zoom (do not accept digital zooms in place of optical zooms; they are not equals), its ability to operate off readily available AA alkalines (though it will accept rechargeables and these make more sense in may ways), its easily expandable memory and its rather surprising number of user-controllable settings, all of which can be handled automatically if you prefer. Lastly, the current price is half what it would have been 18 months ago, making this deal almost too good to pass up.
Rating:
Summary: Great 2 MP Camera!
Review: I keep comparing it to the 2MP SiPix camera my mother has... the Canon has so many more controls and flexibility in shooting, even if you aren't a pro, this camera makes you feel like one. Also, the biggest benefit I've found is the LCD screen. The SiPix screen is horrible in direct sunlight, but the Canon's is still clear and visible, even in the brightest sun! The video mode is pretty good, especially when all I really wanted was a camera that took stills. Definitely recommend this camera to anyone! Just make sure you buy a bigger CompactFlash card, you'll be running back and forth to the computer all the time if you don't.
Rating:
Summary: Small camera with big capabilities
Review: I bought this camera after extensive research and it has lived up to its almost unanimous accolades. It is small but fits nicely in the hand and feels balanced and substantial - not light and cheap. It packs so many features I am still rereading the manual. Flesh tones and white balancing seem very accurate on Auto but everything can be controlled manually if you wish. It seems to use power better than other cameras I've used; I can go several days without recharging or replacing my batteries (Ialways carry a spare, fully charged set). The software on the Macintosh is well designed. My daughter and I created a 360 degree QuickTime VR file of our living room in minutes. Canon recently released Mac OS X software and it functions beautifully. So far I could not be more pleased with my purchase.
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