Customer Reviews

Pentax Optio A40 12MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Shake Reduction Zoom

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is really tiny and I love carrying it all the time. I had the A10, A30 and now the A40 and they are all great cameras. This has easy access to flash options (off, on, red eye, soft etc) as well as focal lengths (macro, super macro, infinity etc). The screen is nearly as big as the camera and makes for great viewing of your photos and movies. The flash works pretty good, even up to distances of greater than 20 feet. It's really easy to set up and understand. The zoom is steady and you can view the screen all the time you're zooming with little or no distortion. I notice a slight purple cast from outdoor light coming in from windows (indoors), but I have a Canon sd950is that does the same thing, so I think this is something with most if not all digital cameras. It's so small and light it's really nice to carry around and the photos are really fantastic. The anti shake is the best I've seen on any brand of digital camera, I have a 16 month old I'm always chasing around, so I really appreciate the anti shake feature. It's a hundred dollars less then the Canon and I'm not sure why because I like the Pentax better.

This is a great camera, it has a quick startup (not counting charging the flash) and it does everything a point and shoot should.

--> Make sure you use one of the high speed sandisk cards<--The pictures can be over 2 megs a piece, if you dont, the camera lags tremendously (I was about to send it back)

Also, the directions say the charger lights green and goes out when charged, in reality, it lights red when charging and turns green when done.

I was looking for a small camera with a lot of features.
What I like:
12 MP, 3 systems of shake reduction, High Dynamic Range, manual focus in almost all modes (you can record a movie in macro, super macro, manual focus, excellent!), ISO range (you can decide a maximun auto ISO), document photos are very clear (I like negative mode to take pictures of my 35mm negatives films), fast focus mode, big movies with a small size.
What I don't like:
Big problem - you can disable Face Priority in Auto mode, this causes the camera found "ghost faces" in what are you focus (my camera found 5 faces when I was taking a picture to a TV remote control). This also causes the camera fires red eye reduction flash (when is not necessary) and the battery runs low too fast. You can not change the zoom in movie mode(while recording). You can record more than 2 hours in HQ but the battery only give 1 hour of life.

I ask people from Pentax to give the posibility to disable Face Pripority in auto mode in the next firmware (please, please!!!).

Got the camera for my wife to replace one that broke. She doesn't go anywhere without it, is always snapping pix. Not an SLR or anything professional, but great quality for its size, great for all-around picture taking.

I bought this for my wife's BD, she loves it. Packed with nice features that makes it easy for a non technical person to take nice photos.

Pentax Optio A40 12MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Shake Reduction ZoomI bought this after a professional photographer showed me his 10 megapixel Pentax last year. When I saw they had just introduced a 12 mp with new features I spent the additional money. It's large LCD viewfinder is good (but it's not up to DSLR precision with thru-the-lens viewing). I carry it in my pocket when I'm traveling/sightseeing or at family functions and don't want to lug my DSLR & lenses around. For that the Optio A40 is great.

I've had the camera for about 3 months now, and overall it's been great. I particularly love the 'double flower' mode that gets me to the short hair.

I take some pictures of small machinery, like phone parts, and electronic gadgets, and the double flower mode gets me in there just fine.

On the down side, i find that occasionally, the focus seems to be just bad. I think i am not giving it enuf time to think, but even when i give it time, it just blows the focus entirely. Since i have lots of memory (4 gigs), my answer to this is simply to take multiple shots of the same item.

Battery time tween charges seems a bit short, but not impossible. I charge on average every 3- 4 days with about 30 pix a day.

I am still failing to get the movies to show on my puter. Something about
DV... mode. Irfanview won't deal. Also, a movie intered into the flash card months ago will not purge when i delete pix, so every time i upload, i have to upload THAT movie, even tho i cleared the memory umpteen times.

-Bobby Koch

***(READ UPDATED 7/3/09 COMMENT ON BOTTOM!)***

I'm writing this because even though I spent much less than retail on this camera, I am disappointed. I was convinced by the reviews that I was getting a spectacular deal, but either mine is defective, or everyone else has low expectations. I have used this camera for about 2 months, so I know how frustrating this camera really is.

I have always used Canon or Olympus, and I wanted to stray and try something different. My mistake, Pentax's autofocus takes forever to focus, then when I snap the picture, it's blurry. I get clear pictures only 1/2 to 2/3rds of the time. This is particularly frustrating when you're spending great effort to get kids to stay still for the shot, then snap, it's another lousy shot. I was taking pictures in clear daylight, holding the button halfway, waited a few seconds 'til I got the green focus confirmation square - and after doing this on myriad occasions, still I had blurry shots on the faces I was focusing on. By then, the kids all run off because they're not interested in waiting forever.

It's even worse on low light situations such as museums where you're not supposed to use flash. I had to delete many photos of my daughter that were one of a kind in front of some exhibits she just had to be photographed with. When you're with a tour group being rushed, you have no second chances. . .

The blurryness is the worst of it, but I also don't like the way you have to go into a menu to switch to video mode. You can't just use a hard switch, and get there like all other cameras I have. I'm constantly switching from video to still mode when I'm photographing my children, and it's a drag to pull up a menu every single time I want to do that.

Just buy a Canon. Don't spare the expense for an easy to use camera that you can trust.

!!!UPDATED 7/3/09 Opinion: Raise it to about 4 stars, but with qualifiers.
I just spent about 4-5 hours (no kidding! but i am a careful reader, and I fidget with the camera while reading) reading the manual and fiddling with the camera. There are many functions on this thing, and if you're willing to learn it, it's well worth the money I paid for it. Still getting some blurry shots often, but I'm confident I can do better with the features I've since learned. While reading the manual, I found a "Green Mode" for supposed foolproof shooting. I found a focus area selection which allows me to do spot focusing, which means I should have less false targets, and blurryness.

I found cute border frames online (about 100 designs) that you can photoshop your childrens' faces into. You have to upload them from the Pentax site, but then you can plug them into your onboard camera memory to adjust and edit on the camera. Basically, you can photoshop your kids face to have dog ears on it, or put it into a cute heart border.

There is a sharpness adjustment somewhere on the firmware, but I don't know if that's where my blurriness is coming from. With all the onboard features, I'm sure I can somehow make this camera work for me.

Canon still rocks out of the box, but this Pentax can give a lot of satisfaction if you are a manual reader. (Maybe I should read the Canon Manuals I have some day, I might be surprised what I can do with them other than getting easy, clear pictures. Forgive me for resisting learning anything new, I'm feeling too old to do anything other than press the shutter button these days.)

This pocket camera does everything I desire and more. It is small, the small dimensions is the reason I bought it, takes very good pictures and it's easy to use. It has as a bonus a sleek body.
Particularly like the shake reduction mode that increases the chances of a good clear photo.
This is my second digital Pentax Optio camera, after the optio 5i, which still works very well after 3 years. I followed up wwith the A40.
I do miss the panaroma mode, that stiches photos together, that the 5i had, but I have no complaints. I highly recommend it

This camera was recommened by PC World and highly rated in Consumer Reports. It is last year's model so it was considerably less expensive than when it is was new. Also, Pentax was bought out by Hoya so the newer cameras will have the new name.
So far, the camera has performed flawlessly. I bought this one because of the ratings and because it has a rechargeable battery. I find using AA or AAA's to be a pain in the neck. It is definitely a bargain.