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.
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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.
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 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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stephencaston - Wednesday, October 6, 2004 - link
#11: For the continuous drive section of the specs, we use the results of our test. Canon is rated at 2.5 fps, but we found that in the highest resolution and SuperFine mode, we were able to take 3 shots at 2.8 fps.Thanks, I'll add a little note in the specs table.
flexy - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
i love my S230 with its 640x480 video capability. Believe me, once you get started with vids and a good editing program like Vegas you wont get back and pics are only the bonus :) And all that fun with such a tiny cam :)I consider the picture quality/optics of the Canon Powershots "ok" - if you consider it's a shoot and point and not a SLR with hyper-great image quality/zoom etc.
Its picture quality is 'overall good' - a great allround camera with nice features (esp. the vids :). I would prefer my S230 (or newer) any time over a big/bulky camera.
Pros:
nice 640x480 vids
IQ good for a point/shoot
size
stylish
Cons:
weak zoom
xand - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
Also, the continous drive information for the cannon in the specifications table is wrong.xand - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
The "best pictures" of this lot of cameras are almost a given; the S410 has a sensor of the same generation with an area of 38.2mm(1/1.8"), as compared to the others, which have 24.7mm (1/2.5") sensors.What would be more interesting would be a comparison of newer cameras by major manufacturers; generally they now all come with 1/2.5" sensors, including the new canons.
stephencaston - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
#8, Unfortunately, we were limited by which cameras we could choose and the S4i was unavailable at the time. However, we feel that the S40 is comparable to the other two cameras with respect to exposure options, size, etc. The S4i would have been a good option and we would have included it if it was available.rliao - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
How come the S4i wasn't reviewed? Isn't it more of an appropriate comparison?SleepNoMore - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
I looked at the Canon S series - they are very nice - almost bought one - THEN I found the Pentax Optio 33WR (now it's upgraded to 4 MP and called the Optio 43WR).It's WONDERFUL.
First of all, it's highly water resistant, has gaskets all through it.
Has about 13 programmed modes but I never need them really I just point and shoot and things look great. White balance is always right on.
Panorama/stitch modes, close-up modes, etc.
Takes SD cards.
Quicktime movies are a bit cheesy (320 X 160) it's more the sound I have issues with than anything but most of the time it's acceptable.
I'm guessing the Pentax 43WR goes for around 280 bucks - havent checked lately.
If you want a camera you can take skiing, snowboarding, to the beach or stand out in the rain without worrying about damage to the electronics, this is the one. It's also not gooney looking (i.e. bright yellow etc) like some other water resistant cameras.
stephencaston - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
#5 thanks, I have fixed the mistakeGumbico - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
Actually, the S410 only allows 3 mins of vid time. That's my only gripe about this camera.TheAudit - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
I have the Canon and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve never been one to read through a manual and this camera was easy enough to figure out so I did not have to do so. I am always surprised at how crisp the pictures are. Of course, I am not a professional photographer but this camera provides everything that I want in a camera – good pictures and small size because I hate carrying stuff around.