Reviews for Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

By member: MikeGratis - May 9, 2002

Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Great pictures, easy to use, manual controls, excellent low light capabilities, decent price, upgradable features via downloads.

Weakness: None. Okay, an 8MB memory card and alkaline batteries; but it's the same with most cameras and is easily resolved.

I've used a few digital cameras over the years, including a lot of work with a Sony MVC-FD71 at my job. When my Dad asked me to recommend a digital camera for Christmas, I did a lot of reading and researching and finally told him to get the Canon A20. The only other camera that really made it to final consideration was the Fuji 2600. When I decided to get a camera for myself, I again spent a lot of time sorting through all of the comparisons and reviews. This time it was the A40 that I chose. Fantastic pictures and printout quality, ease of use, the ability to have just about total manual control, great low light capabilities, a decent price, and expandability were most of the reasons. Another fantastic feature is the ability to upgrade the camera's features via a download, much like upgrading your BIOS. For the price, this camera really can't be beat and I don't hesitate recommending it.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: the best clearest pictures

Weakness: people say batt life..well i dont think so just buy batts for didgital cameras thats all

this is the best camera i have bought. people cant belive how clear the pics are. and its so easy to use. i have canon everything now inluding the printer and scanner. all i can say is canon rocks!!u want great pics buy canon products

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Battery Life; Picture Quality; Ease of Navigating Menus; Movie Mode with Sound; Zoom; Price!

Weakness: The optical viewfinder covers only 80% of the field of vision, but it can be worked with. Since the LCD is so easy to see, I usually aim with that - it shows the whole picture!

WOW! This is my first experience with a digital camera! And it is fantastic! I did a lot of research before spending the money on a digital camera! With this Canon, you get a lot of extra features for your buck! I read that 2 megapixels are good only for printing as large as a 5X7 print - I've printed 8X10's with this camera and they are superb! I'm a Mom who takes a lot of pictures of her two little boys for scrapbooking purposes! This is an ideal camera for that job!

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Ease of use. Excellent picture quality. Alot of high-end features for a $200 + camera. Manual controls.

Weakness: No shutter sound after taking pictures.

Believe me folks, this is the camera that you've been looking for. I have tried the Sony's and the Nikon's and this camera simply outclassess and outhustles the competition. And the price, wow!! where in the h... can you get a camera so feature rich, not to mention the excellent picture quality for under $300. ???? Everything is just so grrrreat about this little baby!!

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: If you want it to be, it is totally automatic, and I love that. Great pics and short Quicktime movies. My first digital camera and I could not be happier or wish for more.

Weakness: Included batteries must go. Get the 1800mAh NiMH batteries, charger, and battery holders for the extra batteries that DCRP links to. Also the 8MB CF card must go. I purchased two 128MB cards.

Both the Wife and I have mastered this camera in automatic very quickly. Took 96 shots at 1600x1200 at Superfine and about 6 10 second movies at 320x240 before the 128MB CF was full and the camera started complaining about the batteries. Via PriceGrabber, I purchased a bundle deal.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Ease of use. Excellent quality 2 megapixel camera. Lasts a long time w/nimh rechargeable batteries.

Weakness: Small 8mb CF card. No AC adapter. No rechargeable batteries. Indoor shots under artificial lighting could be better.

This is probably the best beginner 2 megapixel camera you can buy for the money. Lots of features you can grow into. If you want a camera to take family vacations and/or don't plan on printing much larger than 8x10's this is the one for you. Indoor artificial lighting makes the picture a bit softer, but not too bad.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: 8mb compact flash card (I'll explain), Excellent photo quality, a cinch to use, AA batteries, and offers versatility I would expect to be found only on much more expensive cameras.

Weakness: battery indicator not real useful

I love this camera. I've had several digital cameras dating back to 1995 when I purchased my first one. Since then digi cams have improved by leaps and bounds but this camera has it all at a very reasonable price.

What I like best about the Canon Powershot A40 is the ability to quickly take superb photos in automatic mode, but retain the option to completely tweak my photographic composition if desired using full manual mode. This allows for some pretty nifty night time pictures.

I like the fact that it uses standard AA batteries rather than expensive proprietary batteries. If I run out of juice, it's easy enough to run into the local mini-mart to get more. However, I definitely recommend the Nimh batteries and charger. I'm going to be enjoying this camera for a long time and there's no need to throw all them used batteries into the land fill.

I believe that the 8mb compact flash card that's included is a strength and this is why. By putting in a "cheap" compact flash card, Canon is able to keep the price of the camera low, allowing me to shop around to find inexpensive CF memory. I purchased two 64mb CF cards for $79 on sale.

The one little quirk that can be somewhat annoying is the fact that the "low battery" indicator comes on shortly before the batteries run out. It doesn't give you much time to plan for battery replacement if you're in the middle of snapping shots. It takes a little getting used to.

Otherwise, this camera offers huge bang for the buck!

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Excellent pics, nice design

Weakness: Buy the powerpack ! (and a bigger card, say 128mb )

Nothing to add really. I'm a very experienced analog photographer and this is my first try at the digital stuff. I also own a Leica R-series and i must say ; this is pretty d..mm good. Buy this little guy, he's worth your money !
One thing though i need to say : i got pretty annoyed by the previous reviewer. This is a CAMERA review site, not a "how i hated the company that delivered my camera, and i had to sign for it"- site. It brings down the rating of this excellent little camera whilst this has NOTHING to do with it. My review cranks it up a bit again !! CU.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: EASY TO USE!!!! GREAT PICTURES IN MOST LIGHTING

Weakness: None that I could see

I may not be an owner of one of these but I soon will be! We have been considering going digital but have not been impressed with what we had seen. My fatherinlaw has an $800 thing that is a pain to use. Some other friends have models that you have to wait for--as in you have to be posed and hold still. then I visited our good friends and they had this A40! wow point and click,short videos, zoom, great pictures in all kinds of settings-bright sun, living rooms, beaches, museums. That did it for us and we are buying one as soon as possible

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Fully automatic with full feature manual flexability. Excellent picture quality and low light capability.

Weakness: The optical viewfinder has a field of vision of approximately 80% of the actual image.

After a month of reading reviews and looking, I decided this had to be the best and most flexable 2 meg. camera value. Five weeks use have convinced me that I was right. Compact but not too small, it has a just right feel and is easy to operate with one hand. The 80% optical field of view (typical with most digi cams) can be overcome with experiance and judgement. Of course you can crop before printing, but who wants to purposely waste pixels. NOT ONLY A BEST BUY BUT A VERY GOOD CAMERA. :-)

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Natural Colors-Sharp Images-Full featured Video-Solid Feel-Well Balanced-Ergonomic Grip-Long Battery Life w\NiMH AA-Great $$$ value-Takes Wonderful Pictures!

Weakness: Small CF Card w\Camera-AA batteries w\Camera lasted for only 100 pics-No Carrying Case

For the $$$, can't be beat!!!! I've shot 2000+ pictures with my A40 of Alaska, Sunsets, Moonshots, Flowers, GOM Offshore Steel, Workshop, etc. and hadn't had one problem with this camera! As they say, seeing is believing. If you have any doubts about A40's abilities, take a look at Webshots "torretab". The 1600 X 1200 resolution pics (98%) are taken with the Canon A40. Colors are natural, resolution is as good as it gets with a 2 meg camera and images have a look of quality 35mm film work! It is loaded with usable features that work well and provide a lot of flexibility in the digicam realm.

I've been looking to step up to a 4 meg pixel camera, but other than for printing larger than 8 x 10's, the A40 does an admirable job for everything I've asked it to do!!

Unless you want to spend a lot more money, the A40 may fill the task for you to!

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Easy to use, display is easy to read. Has very good resolution on pictures. Zoom works very well.

Weakness: Accompaning software somewhat tempermental. Power button can be hard to push.

My first digital camera, and I've had no trouble using at all. We took it on a long vacation and ended up with some very good pictures. A very good all around camera for first time users.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: A great beginner digital camera at a bargain price when you consider the features this digital camera has.

Weakness: Thw ISO is not adjustable like many other cameras.

This is a wonderful digital camera offering both a fully automatic, point and shoot mode, as well as a manual mode that allows for a lot of creativity. It has features not found on other digital cameras in the same price range, such as an Infinity Lock allowing you to take great pictures through windows and museum cases without the digital camera mistakenly focusing on the window or the museum case. I teach Digital Cameras to 5,000+ people each year and this digital camera is the digital camera that we recommend as the best "starter" digital camera.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Great quality for a great price. AA batteries, a lot cheaper and easy to replace while on vacation in the Caribbean.

Weakness: Auto focus...but easily fixed by a download from their website. Fixed it perfectly and I was back in action with crystal clear pictures.

At first I wasn't too happy with the clarity of pics, especially when I zoomed in. But I found out about their fix patch download and it fixed it perfectly. I would highly recommend purchasing some nice rechargable batteries! Would purchase it again. Perfect for someone who wants quality pictures on a moderate budget.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Great picture quailty, many options, so many accessories.

Weakness: If only it came with a bigger memory card, rechargeable batteries, and a case and it'd be perfect.

Once you get your accessories you'll be set. I'm new to digital cameras and this has exactly what I needed and more. check out some pictures in the gallery of www.keialaha.com .

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: NICE ! manual mode GOOD

Weakness: havent found any yet

this is my 3rd digital cam. i had a sony p51 and p75 but i didt like that cuz it has many noise that i found

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Perfect color. Photo stitch for panoramic photos. Exif compatible. Easy to use in auto mode. Manual controls if needed. 15 sec shutter speed for night photos. Perfect size and weight. Optical viewfinde

Weakness: Small 8 MB CompactFlash card. No A/C adapter cord. Difficult to choose compatible rechargable batteries and charger. Canon says just use Canon batteries.

What a great camera! This is my first digital so I did not realize what I was missing. Software installation made me a little nervous because of the instructions explaining possible conflicts with other USB devices and limitations with Windows ME. I had no real problems with the installation except for the fact that Microsoft Picture It! seems to want to control everything I do with my downloaded photos. I may just delete Picture It. Not really sure which program is best for editing. I can't say enough good things about this camera. I did a lot of research and found this one because it was the most popular on the IR site. One thing you need to consider is that the very compact cameras can be harder to hold steady during a shot. Camera shake will cause blurriness. This one has a solid feel and the larger size keeps your fingers out of the way. Be sure your camera has an optical viewfinder because you need it if you want to save on battery life. Otherwise you will have to use the LCD monitor all of the time, which will drain your batteries quicker. I have not printed any photos yet but like the idea of being able to hook the camera directly to a photo printer and printing without even having to mess with an editing program. PhotoStitch is amazing. You can take up to 26 photos and stitch them together for almost a 360 deg. view. You just push the SET button on the camera after you have taken your pictures (must be overlapped 30-50%)and they are seamlessly joined.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Almost everything. The picture quality, the price(now at 250 almost everywhere), the manual controls, the movie mode.

Weakness: It only comes with a 8MB. It also has pretty poor macro.

I'm looking into getting a 32MB or 64MB card because each high quality picture takes about 1MB. A macro lens is also available if that is really important, but it takes shots from 6in away which is fine for me. I find this to be a great buy. It is my first digital camera and I did research for about two weeks or so, which I suggest everyone do. If I had more money I may have gone for the Powershot S30, but this camera is a real bargain for my budget considering i only have a part time job. The software that comes with it can't compare to the Photoshop 7.0 I have but it is very simple to use and has some great features. I highly recommend this great starter level camera with some bonus manual controls.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Easy to use, transfer photos and features.

Weakness: None

This is a great point-and-shoot digital camera! It takes wonderful photos straight out of the box. If you are an advance user and know how to adjust settings, the photos get even better. I have had this camera for about a year and still love it! Battery life is average and excellent if you don't use the LCD. The A60 is this cameras replacement since Canon no longer makes the A40.

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Canon Powershot A40, excellent holiday cam

Strengths: Easy to handle, manual shuttertimes, easy focus, great holiday cam

Weakness: Grain in dark places, slightly weak flash, sometimes too long load times, tad heavy

I got this camera as a gift from my father 4 years ago, I was pleasantly surprised. It was one of the 'best' camera's back then. 2MP! Nowadays we don't really care for 'less than 5 MP cams'. However this camera proved me a worthy companion in all those years i went on holiday. It's a great and especially reliable cam. It's not particulary good at macro shots, not particulary good at night shots, not particulary good in zooms. But overall it's just a wonderful and predictible camera, that has NOT left me for the past 4 to 5 years. I say this because it proves something about the quality of this camera. Many cameras around me have been replaced, usually because they were broken.

It's not a light camera, but instead of accu's using penlites is something great, especially in a Zoo.. where you can only buy AA's and no new accu's for a camera :)

I would not recommend this camera to proffesionals, but as i said. This one has been my #1 holiday cam in the past 4 years. My next camera is certainly going to be a canon again!

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Canon Warrenty Service!! A big plus learnt recently

Weakness: Weak flash and low light.

I wrote a review after 1 wk of ownership, now I am back to compliment Canon on its service policy.

We were at the local theme park last month and water splashed on the camera, it got drenched. I should have removed the battery, took it home and dried it with a blower. I tried to see if it still worked and turned the camera on, and it froze after the lens was deployed. Got stuck. My brother is in Chicago, so he took the camera to their service center. Walk in, no prior appointment. They took the camera and I expected them to disclaim responsibility. I thought they will come back with an estimate of 50 to 100$ to repair it. Surprise!!!! They fixed it for free! Great job Canon.

In the nine months, I have taken tons of great pictures, I carry two sets of Ni-MH batteries and a 128 MB card. I routinely snap 400 pictures per trip. I dont run out of batteries.

The shutter lag is not a problem. If you know where the "action" is going to be, you half press the shutter and let the camera do the auto-focus and white balance calculations and be ready to snap. Just click when you want to and there is practically no delay. I took a shot of my daughter breaking a board in a Karate Tournement. Exactly at the precise moment the board broke! Dolphins in air at their maximum height etc with absolutely no problems.

Flash too weak to shoot stage dances from audience section.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: picture quality,zoom is good for beginners like me,ease of use on auto mode, metallic structure,gr8 flash!

Weakness: 8 mb card, shutter lag, heavy, no case, battery life

this is my 1st digi cam and i am really pleased with it.it takes really gr8 pix. there are few faults with this camera. one is the battery life. when buying this camera get some rechargable batteries and a charger. the 8 mb card only holds about 24 pix on the medium setting..so get at least a 64 mb (which is what i have holds 100 on big size 200 on med size & 400 on small size). the shutter lag is what irritates me the most bout this cam. it takes very long to "recover" from taking a pic. somtimes if u try to press the button too soon the camera freezes up and u just miss the moment. but really all in a this camera is a very very good buy.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Easy to Use. Plenty of features. Great battery life.

Weakness: No big ones found yet, really. The manual could have more detail and tips on using the different settings.

Great camera for the money! I had been looking at cameras costing $100-200 more, but I decided on this one after testing it out and finding that it was simple to operate and the picture quality was good and predictable. Battery life way exceeded my expectations.
Along with the camera, I also bought a USB card reader ($25) so that I would not have to hook the camera up to my computer, and a battery recharger and 8 batteries so that I would always have spare fresh batteries. I would also recommend purchasing a couple extra 32 Mb+ flash cards. :-)

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Features, ease of use, great pictures

Weakness: Requires larger card and rechargeables, adding +/-$100 to cost of the package.

This is my first digital camera and I love it. I researched for months and finally decided for point and shoot snaps, higher MP wasn't required. the camera is a snap to use, right out of the box, menus are intuitive, and pictures are amazing. Minor nitpickers include needing a battery charge remaining indicator and a shutter sound to tell you just when the pic has been snapped.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Full manual mode, focus assist lamp, movies with sound, Exif print, telephoto macro mode, lens cover, digital effects, price.

Weakness: No manual white balance, no four way controller, no Tif or Raw mode, no control of flash intensity, no exposure bracketing, no sepia mode, no diopter adjustment.

At a price point in the mid 200's, the Canon Powershot A40 is hard to beat. What other camera in this price range offers total manual control along with standard auto and program modes, movies with sound, a focus assist beam, a panorama mode, real macro, five digital effects, bright Canon optics and good photo quality? Auto mode sets most parameters and works well in most situations. Macro, portrait and landscape settings are available in program mode. EV control comes in handy. Full manual mode allows for total control over exposure. Size and weight are factors that give the camera a good feel in the hand. Not small or light, but solid feeling and easy to hold, even with large hands.

A few weaknesses are noted. Manual white balance is missing. There is no uncompressed shooting mode. No user control over flash intensity. A four way controller would be nice.

In conclusion, the Canon Powershot A40 gives a lot of performance, for a minor investment. I would highly recommend this camera for the beginner or for the enthusiast. The inclusion of so many features, controls and effects, make it a best buy as well as a top performer in the 2MP CCD/3X optical zoom compact digicam category.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Very compact, great resolution, great zoom, easy software and installation

Weakness: Not very good up close pictures but great at distance.no camera case.

Looked at nikon coolpix and almost got one but very happy with the canon. I compare the pics from the more expensive nikon and the a40 and the canon was alot better pics. Buy a charger and rechargerable batteries. It is worth it. I bought a energizer chaer and the batteries and a 256 mb cf type 1 card and i have over 400 pic available to use on the highest resolution or approx 800 middle resolution or over 100 on the small resolution. All of that just for under 400 dollars. Get the powershot camera case from canon for 7 dollars too.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Very good price, movie mode, optional lenses, Manual settings

Weakness: 8 MB memory, fuzzy macro shots, and no case

This is my first digital camera andd i really like it. the pictures are generally pretty good. i als mo like the manual mode. and the few things i didn't like were not so bad since i only paid $200 for it

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: 15 seconds exposure, All the manual controls, AA Batteries, lots of accessories available, good website

Weakness: Heavy, picture quality, macro ability, shutter lag, no real aperture

The best are all the controls you have on this camera for this prizerange...it can handle almost all situations...
I bought this camera because of all the good reviews but have to say I'm a little disappointed with the picture quality. The colors are not very accurate and the sharpness is not really crisp, the focus is very soft...I think the Fuji's handle that better.
The manual aperture setting doesn't bring any DoF effect...guess I should not expect higher prized features.
But for the prize it's ok, and I needed a camera that can handle nightshots.

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Nice lil camera, but the software... UGH!

Weakness: BATTERY COMPARTMENT LID WILL DIE ON YOU

Forget the stupid software.... after a year and a half, the thing I fear the most has come upon me..!! The battery compartment LID is giving LOTS of trouble to close, to the point where I HATE to have to change batteries, because I don't know if it'll mean the effective death of the camera, this one last time: if you can't close your wonky compartment lid, you can't make electrical contact, can you? -and there goes ALL function. ....see what I mean??
so, if you're rich, and you're going to change your digi-cam within 6months to a year, go ahead and buy, but BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THE BATTERY COMPARTMENT LID and how you treat it ever so carefully, especially how you CLOSE it..!!
I will not be buying ANY camera with this sort of battery compartment lid design, not again!

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Canon PowerShot A40 Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Strengths: Low price and quick deliver

Weakness: Requires signature for delivery

Plan on taking plenty of days off if you order from this company. They won't deliver without your signature but for a FEE they will deliver somewhere else. Expect to add ten dollars to your final price if you want to receive purchase.

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Canon Powershot A40

Canon Powershot A40 receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS score of 2.45 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #199 standard digital camera of all time. The overall rating represents an intelligent balance of features, value as a function of price to features, and a summary of reviews from a variety of sources. The TopTen REVIEWS' formula gives a picture of important consumer features, market value, and a...

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