Canon's
PowerShot S40 is sleek. Housed in a grey metal body with a brushed
steel look on the front, the camera's finish is top-notch.
Canon has always gone the extra distance to make their cameras aesthetically
pleasing, and the S40 is no exception. The camera feels nice to hold,
and appears designed to stand up to years of use.
A
sliding lens cover acts as the On/Off switch for the camera, and when
slid back allows the lens to extend. Although the design is elegant, the
sliding cover may be the only "weak" point of the entire construction.
When closed, the edge of the cover on the flash side can easily catch
and lift as it is only attached on the other end.
Five
of these are located on the upper right side of the camera. Near the front
is the zoom control and immediately behind it the 2-stage shutter release.
The Mode Dial, recessed into the top but easily rotated from the back,
provides the access to the camera's numerous programs. Two other controls
are placed right on the back edge: a playback switch identified with a
blue arrow, and a 4-direction control to navigate the menus and select
the focus system: single, or 3-point.
Two
more buttons are on the upper left side, and both have a dual function.
In the Recording mode, one sets the Flash Modes (red-eye reduction auto,
auto, forced red-eye, on or off). The other is for the Macro mode (minimum
of 10 cm [3.9 in] from the lens).
In playback, the same buttons serve to display thumbnails (Flash); and
(Macro) to jump groups of 9 thumbnails at a time.
The
back of the S40 also provides additional controls, arranged on either
side of the 1.8 inch LCD screen. On the left, a stack of 3 buttons provides
for:
Exposure
compensation, White balance, Flash compensation and Exposure bracketing.
Manual
Focus in the recording mode and image Delete in playback.
Metering
mode: evaluative (averaging), centre-weighted, and spot. The same
button can also be used to engage an AE Lock when the shutter release
is pressed halfway. In Playback, the button turns on the microphone
to add a voice annotation to an image.
The
right side of the screen presents 2 buttons. The first calls the menu,
the second turns on or off the LCD screen and the information overlay.
In Playback, the Display button also serves to show information about
a photo being displayed. Two presentations are possible.
The
Histogram shows the distribution of brightness in the image. Peaks
on the left indicate dark areas, central peaks indicate a balanced
image, and peaks on the right indicate too much brightness.
The
simple mode displays the image full-screen and indicates the compression,
resolution, file format, along with the image number and date/time at
which it was taken.
The Detailed mode shows a smaller image and adds a histogram, and
all the shooting data.
The layout of the controls
on the S40 makes the camera very workable. The only drawback is limited
to the 4-direction control located on the upper right edge and which Canon
refers to as the "Multi-controller". Some operations require
it to be pressed in at the centre, but the control lacks precision and
easily registers a side movement instead.
