Canon's new PowerShot S40 is a sleek and versatile four-megapixel amalgam of the semipro PowerShot G2 and the ultracompact digital Elph series.
The S40's compact, brushed-metal design makes it portable and stylish, but it's still loaded with most of the high-end camera features that make the G2 so appealing to serious photo enthusiasts. With its top-notch image quality and reasonable price tag, the S40 will appeal to both the style and function conscious.
Spiffy new design
At 260gms (without the battery and CompactFlash card installed), the S40 has a solid feel and sturdy construction. Its use of a sliding lens cover and retractable 3X zoom lens isn't unusual among compact cameras, but it is a departure from Canon's previous models--and the company has used the design to great effect.
Upon sliding open the solidly built cover, start-up time is impressively quick. Canon has devised a new playback switch on the back, too, providing a much quicker way to go from shooting mode to review mode and back than the typical mode-dial route.
We do have a couple design complaints, however: The optical viewfinder doesn't show you enough of the picture you'll capture, and the view is slightly distorted. It's also impossible to change the battery and media with the camera on a typical tripod. On the other hand, we loved this camera's easy operation.
You don't have to hunt through the S40's menu to access frequently used settings, such as white balance, flash, exposure compensation, metering type, and auto-bracketing. They're all easily accessible through buttons. The rather busy command dial is littered with abbreviations and icons, but we appreciated it more with each use.
Shooting modes are all quickly accessible, and there are so many from which to choose that Canon has divided them into two categories: the Image Zone and the Creative Zone. The Image Zone offers seven preset scene modes, as well as a fully automatic setting and a Movie mode, while the Creative Zone includes the programmed auto, aperture-priority, shutter-priority, and manual exposure modes.
Photographic flexibility
The S40 doesn't skimp on features. Its advanced camera functions include an uncompressed Raw format option, two continuous shooting modes, and a host of image-control options. The camera boasts a microphone and speaker as well and can record two-minute low-res movies with sound. Unfortunately, the S40 lacks the system expandability of a hot shoe or threads for lens attachments, and it won't record TIFF files. However, writing an uncompressed four-megapixel TIFF file takes time, and you'll be thankful for the speed, smaller file size, and flexibility of the Raw format.
We were impressed by the S40's fast performance. If you prefocus a shot by depressing the shutter release button halfway, there's virtually no shutter lag when you take your shot--even with the flash. The included rechargeable lithium-ion battery will provide at least a couple of hours' worth of shooting with heavy use of the LCD. The bundled charger is light and portable and will juice up the battery in only 80 minutes.
High-quality output
This camera produces terrific images, from the accurate exposures of its evaluative metering system to the impressive degree of detail visible in its four-megapixel resolution. Even in pictures we took under very low light, detail was remarkable and noise levels remained low. Flash-lit photos were generally well exposed, with accurate, relatively sharp focus, thanks to the built-in focus lamp.
The automatic white-balance setting yielded pleasing, realistic colour in the majority of our natural and flash-lit images, though we found the custom white-balance setting to be most reliable when shooting with other kinds of artificial light.
What's particularly impressive is that we were hard-pressed to find any significant chromatic aberrations, even in heavily backlit portraits and in high-contrast shots that typically produce purple fringing. We got some excellent results using the camera's macro setting as well, though the 10cm focusing distance is a bit limiting.
At AU$1799 (incl GST), the S40 has a reasonable list price for its class. This camera merits serious consideration, as it competes very well in the compact 4-megapixel class, which includes strong contenders such as the Olympus Camedia D-40, the Pentax Optio 430, and the Ricoh Caplio RR1.
Canon PowerShot S40
Company: Canon Australia
Price: AU$1799 (incl GST)
Distributor: All major retailers
Phone: 1800 816 001
3%
5%
