Take your time | Specific advice | The downside | A specific case
(April 2002) I bought this camera a few weeks ago, and went straight on vacation two days after I bought it.
Take your time getting to know your camera
First of all, buying a digital camera a few days before a vacation is NOT a good idea. I brought the manual, but I still would have gotten better photos if I'd had time to play with it a lot more before I went on vacation. But I was pressed for time, and that's the only choice I had.
Is this really a point and shoot camera?
No, it's not in my opinion.
What do I base that opinion on? Well, first of all, you generally get better results the more you know about photography. That's true with every camera you'll ever use, but especially so with this one. Basically, you need to stop using the "auto" mode as soon as possible, or you'll regret it (I did). Put it on Program for now. Second, I got my mom to take pictures of me, and got a few surprises. I'd taken a few pictures of her first, saw that they were good, then just switched places with her - and the ones she took were unsharp. There are several possible reasons for that, camera shake or focus problems. Bottom line is, it's easy to get unsharp photos with this baby.
That said, the picture quality on this baby totally beats my old digital camera except in one area: Macro. It's easier to get sharp photos with the old one (Olympus Camedia 830L ), especially if you don't know what you're doing. For quick and easy macro photos for the computer or the web, I used the old one - in the beginning. By now I'd only use the old one if I couldn't get close enough with the S40. See below for more on that.
(May 2002) Some more points after more time with the camera:
Camera shake: I've been lurking in a discussion forum about this camera, and one thing they're saying, is that you tend to get camera shake with this camera if you venture below 1/200 sec. My dad also made a valid point. He got some unsharp portraits of me, until he realized that he'd been too quick to release the button. There's no risk of taking multiple shots with this camera, so keep depressing the button until after you hear the sound indicating you've taken the photo, otherwise the movement of your finger retreating will introduce camera shake.
Overexposed macro shots with flash: I had a hard time getting properly exposed macro shots with flash in the beginning. Each camera has its idiosyncrasies, and I'd been spoiled with the Olympus and macro handling (though it too will overexpose with flash). I finally figured out some settings that seem to work for me: I use aperture priority (Av) set to f.8, change the setting to include flash. Macro. Set to max telephoto, and then change the exposure with flash. I've been experimenting some, and right now I'm using -1. The results are technically underexposed, but at least I get no/few hotspots this way. I tried some portraits at that setting (no Macro). Visibly underexposed, but still quite pleasing to the eye. But one photo had some burnt out highlights (in some dry wrinkles), even though it was underexposed. Makes me wonder if underexposed is the lesser of two evils... I'd experiment with settings (using a larger aperture) based on the available light. If the subject is far from the camera, you'll have to abandon these settings, they only work for closeups.
Unsharp at infinity: A "favorite" gripe with my old Olympus was that it was generally unsharp except at macro range. Imagine my dismay when I found that this camera also seemed unsharp at infinity, although it appears sharp at distances the Olympus couldn't handle. Turns out ALL compact digicams apparently have a problem with infinity. That is, if you watch the image at 100 % on a screen. The real test is when you print the photos. To get a better idea of the sharpness of an image, watch it at 50 %. Most cameras are a little bit fuzzy at infinity, because of athmospheric haze and similar problems. The photos I've had printed so far don't appear fuzzy at infinity, so it's actually quite OK.
(October 2002) I didn't think I'd write this passage, but I must...
If you want to talk about the s40, head on over to this message board. By now they're probably talking about the S50, and possibly the new digital Canon SLR.
This page was created by Ann Elisabeth Nordbo
and has its home at http://www.annelisabeth.com/
Updated 12.26.2004
Created May 2002