Anyone have a Canon PowerShot S40?

[teddymines]

I'm looking at digital cameras and believe the Canon PowerShot S40 is the pick for me. I've read lots of reviews from critics and users, and am interested in opinions from Anandtech folks. If you have feedback, good or bad, I'd like to hear what you have to say. Also, if you picked another camera, let me know why. Thanks.

 

[AndyHui]

I've got the PowerShot S30.

Same camera, but 3 Megapixel instead of 4.

Great quality shots. Speed is very good. Initially did have a lot of problems with Red Eye, but I think I've got it figured out now. The rocker type control switch may be a bit fiddly if u have large fingers.....it takes getting used to.

The greatest problem (if you really needed to pick something out) is battery life. Far too short. Expect a short afternoon worth of picture taking and that's it from one battery, so picking up a spare battery is a must.

 

[RalfHutter]

I also have an S30 and like it very much. Picture quality is very good. AF/shutter lag is quite short compared to a lot of digi-cams. I love all the available manual functions.

Andy - what did you do for the redeye problem?

 

[teddymines]

Thanks, Andy. The need for an extra battery is something that just about every reviewer mentioned. What size CF card do you have? The 16mb card won't hold enough for me, so I'm looking at a 256mb CF for about $90.

 

[AndyHui]

I have a 128MB CF card.

As for the red eye, I'm not sure what I did. Just about all of my indoor shots ended up with red eye. I fiddled around with the settings and now it's pretty much gone (although not completely).

 

[Slogun]

Love my S30.
I have two batteries and a 256 MB card and a card reader.
This camera takes awesome pix.Have not come close to filling up the compact flash card even when I was on vacation and taking a lot of 30 second videos.
I also have the Canon s900 printer which is equally amazing. It prints beautiful borderless! 8 x 11 prints.

 

[T2T III]

I owned the S40 for about 25 days and then returned it. It was a very nice camera. However, I was begging for more options - ability to use a separate add-on flash, additional lenses, etc. - so I returned the S40 and picked up a G2 instead. The S40 can't be beat for its compactness - and great pictures.

Thanks, Andy. The need for an extra battery is something that just about every reviewer mentioned.

If you're thinking about extra batteries, you might want to check out Battery Barn - Their prices are pretty good, plus you should be able to find a battery made by Lex?? (sp??) which has a longer life - more in the range of 1500 mAh. Plus, the batteries are quite cheap and shipping is free. Lots of people at DPReview.com have had good service from this company.

Good luck with your purchase! You can't go wrong with Canon -