The Hunt for the Best Ultra-Compact Camera
by Stephen Caston on October 5, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Digital Camera
The Design: Pentax Optio S40
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The front of the Optio S40 features a lens with a 35mm equivalent 3x zoom of 35 - 105mm. The lens has a maximum aperture of f2.6 at wide angle and 4.8 at telephoto. The shutter speed range is 4 - 1/2000th sec. To the upper-left of the lens are the microphone and remote control receiver/self-timer lamp. To the right is the built-in flash with a working range of 0.6 - 11.5 ft. at wide angle and 0.6 - 6.6 ft at telephoto. Just to the lower-right of the flash is the viewfinder window.
Click to enlarge.
On the back of the S40, you will see the 1.6" LCD monitor with 85,000 pixels. Above the LCD monitor is the viewfinder along with two indicator lamps. Directly opposite of the LCD monitor is a 4-way control pad with a separate "Ok" button in the middle. In record mode, the left arrow button selects the flash mode, the right arrow button selects the focus mode, and the up arrow button selects the drive mode. Surrounding the control pad are the Function, Menu, and Display buttons. Above the control pad are the Delete and Playback buttons followed by the zoom controller.
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On the far left is the S40's speaker. To the right is the Mode dial with the main power switch located in the center. Just to the left of the Mode dial is a power indicator lamp that stays lit whenever the camera is on. On the far right is the shutter release button.
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 Click to enlarge. |
On the bottom is a sliding door that reveals the battery compartment. The Optio S40 supports either two Alkaline/NiMH AA batteries or one CR-V3 battery. Although the kit comes with 2 Alkaline AA's, we recommend picking up some NiMH batteries for longer life. On the far right edge, you can also see the plastic tripod mount.
 Click to enlarge. |
 Click to enlarge. |
On the right side is a post for the wrist strap as well as a hinged door that reveals the SD card slot. Although the camera does not come packaged with an SD card, we should point out that there are 11MB of internal memory. We recommend getting at least a 128MB card to get started.
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 Click to enlarge. |
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araczynski - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
my classic Kodak DC240 is still kicking ass and taking names :) years later and I still could care less what else is out there :)Next camera will probably be video anyway, not much use (to a general consumer) for a still shot only camera (yeah, the crappy wanna be video mode doesn't count)
WooDaddy - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
Canons are very good. I agree.Just to put it out there.. Don't forget the Minolta G400. It falls in the same category as well: 4MP, VERY small, 3x zoom, movie mode, <$300. The selling point for me was the very fast shot to shot time and the dual MS and SD slots. Startup time is probably on par if not faster than the Casio. Image quality is very good as well. AF isn't probably as good or controllable as the Canon though. The demonstration of the Canon AF feature is helpful; I wish I knew it worked like that before I got my Minolta. The Minolta requires more tinkering that most but once you get the hang of it, it's OK.
Either way the G400 is a camera that shouldn't be ignored.
noxipoo - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
I have canon S230 and I have used a S400, S500 extensively and they have always rocked. I have used older models that my friends have also. We all get canon for the consistent image quality, in the end its all that really matters.John1177 - Saturday, January 16, 2021 - link
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