chaoscat's Full Review: Pentax Optio A40 Digital Camera
After a lot of research and agonizing I finally settled on this camera. I paid $ 300 at Compusa. Some e-tailers advertised it for less, but nobody had it. Right now, this is a very hard camera to get.
This is a solidly built camera. An important factor for me. I just couldn't pay that much money for something with a cheesy looking plastic case, even if the electronics in it are great. The Compact flash and battery covers secure well and seem tough enough to survive. The side ports for video, USB cable and power adaptor are covered by a rubber flap, probably for the best due to frequent usage. The lens assembly automatically retracts and covers itself when the camera is turned off.
I've only used the camera for a few weeks. Just brought it back from a week in Cancun and was very happy with it. Low light or bright light, this camera doesn't care - takes great pictures under all conditions. I was very surprised at how well some pictures in low light conditions came out. Also, one picture that I took of a moving horse at a fast trot came out perfectly clear. I got about 60 photos out of the first set of batteries and that included a lot of on/off, with also some time hooked up to the computer. With the included 8 megabyte card and medium settings on resolution of 1042 x 768 and compression (fine) that card holds about 46 pictures. With my 128 megabyte card in, the camera tell me I can take 360 pictures with those settings. Also, on this setting the photo angle was wonderfully wide.
A friend asked me take photos of her para-sailing using her Vivitar digital camera. I could not see anything on the display screen on the beach. I had to use the viewfinder and did not know if I had good pictures until we got back in the shade. With the A40 it is not a problem, the display is visible in the brightest sunlight.
This camera is very easy to use. If you are an advanced user, there are different settings that allow you access to more complex features in the Manual Mode. For the novice, you set it to Auto and the menu screens won't show you those advanced options.
The only problem I have had is installing the interface software on the computer. I was unable to do this sucessfully without assistance from Canon. When my son tried to install it on his computer, he had problems of a different nature. In both cases, phone calls to Canon customer service resolved the issues and everything is fine now.
Be advised that this is not a dainty little camera that you stuff in pocket and forget about. It is a solid chunk, about the size of most automatic 35mm camera. For me, I was willing to trade off size for features.
All in all, in my opinion this is the best camera out there for the price.
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