This canon is fully loaded (Canon Powershot A40)

Member Name: mgoldman

Product:	Canon Powershot A40
Date:	14/02/03 (471 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, very comprehensive, good results

Disadvantages: a bit long in the tooth, bulky

In terms of technical detail there is very little to be added to Regeants comprehensive review, but I thought I would add some practical aspects.
I acquired my A40 as a replacement for an older Fuji.
The downside of the aquisition is that there was no case supplied, so it is a definite that a case must be acquired. Try to make it as small as possible, as the camera is quite tubby. I installed big batteries immediately, and using the 1800mAH NiMH batteries I had, I have done a week's holiday, with about 200 shots. The other clue is that I did not even contemplate using the 8MB Compact Flash card supplied, and immediately added a 128MB card, which, as I said, held 200 images no problem with the camera set at maximum resolution. Image size at that setting is about 600k'ish as jpeg format images.

Whilst the software supplied works, I immediately also installed a compact flash card reader on my computer. This is much more convenient and faster to deal with. It also means that there is less risk of wrecking to somewhat flimsy looking USB port.

As was stated on the other review, the instruction manual is big, but is not complex. A lot of what goes on in the camera is only semi-intuitive, as some functions don's work on every camera setting. If you have used Canon EOS cameras before, some of the controls will look very familiar, and if you go for the simple green point and shoot facility, it is a good starting point. It is difficut to remember that this camera, whihc looks like a simple point and shoot job has the classic Canon zone focussing, with the audible warning, and a satisfactory zoom of up to x7 with the electronics. I don't know what that translates into in terms of SLR zoom lens characteristics, but obviously this does not replace a proper slr.

Once set up (I have mine emulating a 400asa film) it is dead simple to use, and the result are beyond my expectations, and certainly beyond the results of my old fuji. (Ha
d to junk the smartmedia cards) I had resisted going to 4Megapixels, as I thought that this would need so much more memory and computing power. 2 mega is satisfactory for my needs, and only shows up its faults on full size A4 prints.

One of my best discoveries was forced on me by my wife who dislikes the fiddling about with manipulating and inkjet printing of the photo's. I chose the best looking 40 pictures on my CF card, and deleted the rest. Without touching them up. I took the card to HappySnaps, and one hour later, and £12.50 I had 40 first rate 6x4 prints of photo quality. You cannot tell they are not from an SLR. The colours are good, focussing is fine, and there is satsifactory gradations of colour and contrast. Brilliant! The only comment I would make is that some of the zoomed shots using the electronic zoom look a bit flat, with loss of perspective.

I have tried the movie facility, which is a bit of fun, when something moves. It produces quicktime movies, which play fine on either windows media player or quicktime, as supplied with the camera software. Resolution is crap, but they are just a bit of fun, and you also get the sound.

I would say that for the money, this has been a very good buy. I recognise that the world has moved on, and 4MP will be the base measure in few weeks, and the prices will drop. I would say that if you got your hands on one of these, and spend time working out the best facilities, you will have a lot of fun, and produce some good pictures. I have put some of mine up in the members section of webshots.com - which is a free and excellent way to share your digital photos.

Summary: