After trying out and being slightly disappointed with the Fuji FinePix A345, I decided to give a slightly more expensive Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S40 a try. I got it for only $20 more than the A345 cost me. At such a low price, this Sony has a small 1.5-inch LCD screen vs. 1.8 on Fuji, but I like it much more. Let's find out why.

Pictures

The pictures of the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S40 as well as sample photos I took using it are available at the address below:

Click here to see the sample photos I took with this Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S40 (DSCS40) camera and photos of the camera

What Is Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S40?

The Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S40 is a 4.1-Megapixel compact digital camera with a 3x optical zoom (32-96 mm equivalent), a 1.5-inch LCD screen, Carl Zeiss optics, powered by 2 AA batteries. Two alkaline batteries included, rechargeable batteries recommended.

The camera stores pictures on a proprietary Sony Memory Stick or Memory Stick Pro and features fast USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection to PC and Mac computers. Unlike most other cameras, the S40 has no A/V output feature. It has 32 MB of built-in memory to get you started.

Two Reviews

I will provide two reviews below. The first one (short version) will be targeted to people who don't want to read through multiple pages of text to figure out if the camera has what they want and if it performs well. It is targeted to a casual user rather than somebody who cares about the small details.

The second version will contain the description of the more advanced aspects for those who are interested in them. By separating this information, I hope to avoid boring casual shooters to death with information about things they might not need.

Short Review

The Sony S40 looks nice and feels sturdy in your hand. It looks and feels durable, more so than the Fuji A345. The controls of the camera have good tactile feel and the lids open and close snugly.

The camera is rather compact and its LCD screen seems miniature. The camera has an on/off button on the top deck, which powers the camera on/off when depressed and held. Once powered, the camera opens the lids that protect the lens and extends its lens forward. It happens pretty fast and you are ready to shoot in about a 1-2 seconds after you turn the camera on.

The shutdown is also fast. The lens retracts and the lid closes (it has two parts).

The camera's top deck also has a shutter release button and a LED that lights u p when the camera is on. The bottom of the camera has a Memory Stick card compartment lid as well as a standard threaded tripod mount. The side has a USB port cover and another has a sturdy battery compartment lid.

The rear panel of the camera houses a 1.5-inch LCD monitor, control buttons and a zoom buttons.

The camera is very easy to use. I have not read the manual, but was able to use the camera and all its features in no time. The camera can be used by any member of the family and by photographers of all levels of expertise from novices to advanced ones (albeit it will not give you much control over the shutter speed or aperture).

Current Sony cameras use menus that look almost exactly the same. If you are upgrading from another Sony model or getting a second camera with the first one being also Sony, the learning curve might be nonexistent.

The camera comes pre-set to Auto mode. You do not have to do anything other than point and shoot - the camera takes care of the rest. The camera uses 5-area smart autofocus (you can also select spot autofocus). You press the shutter release button halfway to make camera focus (the camera shows you that it focused and beeps to confirm focus) and then you take the picture by pressing the shutter release button all the way.

You zoom in and out by using the zoom buttons on the rear of the camera. The camera has an optical viewfinder and a small 1.5-inch LCD screen that is accurate, fluid (slightly less fluid in the dark) and works well in the sun and dim light (gains-up).

If you want more control, you can select one of the scene modes (Portrait, Landscape, Show, Beach, etc.) For even more control, you can select Program mode, in which you can select ISO (80-400), white balance, exposure compensation, metering mode (multi, spot), etc.

I read a review on steves-digicams.com before I bought the camera, where it was said to have manual focus (several distance presets), manual mode and the pictures implied it has a histogram. Nope. The camera has no manual mode, no focus modes other than smart 5 point or spot and no histogram. I would not expect it to have any of these at this price point.

The camera is fast in operation. In single-frame mode, the camera could snap pictures as fast as I could push the shutter release button - about once every 1-2 seconds. The focusing takes less than a second and the shutter lag (the time between the moment you push the button and the moment when the picture is taken), when pre-focused, is much less than a second.

When taking pictures with flash, the pictures can be taken at about 6-7 second intervals. The flash is quite powerful for the camera size. I was pleasantly surprised how far it could reach.

The camera has a focus assist light, which is rather bright. The focusing in the darker environments is slower than in bright light, but is below 3 seconds, even at telephoto. But the camera was sometimes unable to obtain focus in some circumstances. It was rare and it happens with all cameras.

The zooming is relatively slow, but rather precise and lets you fine-tune your composition well. The camera has a 3x optical zoom (32-96 mm equivalent focal length) with f/2.8 maximum aperture at wide angle, f/5.1 at telephoto, which is rather good. The 32mm wide angle is rather wide for a consumer-level digital camera (usually they start at 35-39 mm). It means that you can get a wide coverage, which is especially useful indoors or on narrow streets. You do not have to move far back to get everything you want in the frame.

The camera lets you select the resolution for your images between 4M (2304x1728), 3:2 (perfect fit for 6x4 prints), 3M (2048x1536), 1M (1280x960) and VGA (E-mail) mode (640x480). You also get a choice between Standard and Fine quality. The Fine mode uses about 6:1 compression and the Standard uses about 11:1 (about 2 vs. 1.1 MB per picture).

The built-in 32 MB memory can fit about 16 photos at the highest resolution and best quality or 28 photos with Standard quality. You will definitely need to get a memory card (Memory Stick or Memory Stick Pro).

Fully charged batteries (depending on the battery capacity and flash use) last about 200-250 minutes (about 400-500 photos), which is very good. You can turn the LCD off to conserve the battery power.

The camera produces very good photo with well-exposed, sharp, contrasty and richly-colored images. The camera has very good auto white balance. Overall, the picture quality is very good. It is surprising for the camera price and is much better than the what Fuji A345 provides.

The photos are rather sharp with virtually no softening in the corners of the frame. I was unable to find any chromatic aberration (purple fringing). Overall, a very impressive performance, especially considering the price and size of the camera as well as its wide-angle capabilities.

You can see the sample photo from the Sony DSCS40 below (click for a full-sized image):

The camera lets you select automatic ISO or set ISO 80, 100, 200 or 400. The image noise is absent at ISO 80, slight at the ISO 100 in the shadows, gets more pronounced at ISO 200 and gets worse at ISO 400 (and some fine detail get softer to suppress noise). Still, if you are printing 6x4 or 5x7 pictures, the noise should not be visible at all and will only be slightly visible at ISO 400 with larger prints. With 4.1-megapixel shots it produces, you can print your photos at up to 10x8 inches with good detail (ISO up to 200).

The camera has a relatively small LCD and no A/V out, but the LCD is bright and usable, and I do not care for the A/V outs since I have never used an A/V out on any of my cameras and do not plan to.

Recommendation: I recommend Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S40 if you an inexpensive 4.1-Megapixel digital camera with good features and performance. It is easy to use and looks nice too.

Full Review

Features and Specifications

• 4.1-megapixel CCD
• Carl Zeiss 3x optical zoom lens
• 35mm equivalent lens focal length: 32-96 mm
• 1.5" color LCD
• MPEG Movie VX with audio
• five-area multipoint autofocus and spot focus
• variable ISO sensitivity and selectable ISO 80, 100, 200 and 400
• built-in flash
• USB 2.0 Hi-Speed interface (backward-compatible with older USB 1.1 interface)
• compatible with Memory Stick and Memory Stick PRO (32MB Memory built-in)

Supplied Accessories

• USB cable
• wrist strap
• software CD-ROM (for Windows® and Mac)
• manuals
• 2 AA alkaline batteries

More on Features and Controls

The camera has a low-light focus assist illuminator that helps it focus in low light. It focuses very fast in both bright and dark environments.

You can use the exposure compensation in the Program mode and it comes in handy in some situations. There are a bunch of scene modes as well, which help the camera tweak the focusing and exposure settings according to the type of scene.

More on Image Quality

The camera produces contrasty photos that have a pleasing color with slight oversaturation (by default) and a slight warm cast. The dynamic range of the photos seems to be slightly limited, especially in highlights (as in other consumer-level digicams). In harsh lighting conditions, the highlights can be blown out. Overall, the dynamic range is rather good, comparing to other compact cameras. The high default contrast will please consumers.

I was not able to find much chromatic aberration (purple fringing) in the areas of high contrast. There is a small amount of blurring in the corners of the frame, but it does not extend far into the image and is very minimal.

White Balance

The S40 has auto white balance or you can choose among several presets including halogen, incandescent, sunny, cloudy, etc. The camera has no custom white balance setting (using a grey card). The camera's automatic white balance favors warmer color casts, but does a good job overall.

Camera Sounds

The camera itself is rather quiet in operation. You can customize the sounds it makes through its speaker and their volume (e.g. sound when the camera obtains focus, shutter release sound, etc.)

Build Quality and Ergonomics

The camera has a solid feel and good build quality. The major controls are within easy reach and the tactile response is good overall. The camera has a compact shape that makes it not the most convenient to hold, but it is not too bad overall. The lids for battery and memory compartments are sturdy and the battery polarity is well marked.

Menu System

I have not read the manual, yet was able to use the camera in all modes. I like Sony's menus less than recent Canon menus or Panasonic ones. But they are certainly usable, it just takes more time to do the same thing with Sony menus than it does with Canon or Panasonic. It takes especially too much time to get to the Setup menus. But the selection of resolution is one button push away.

LCD

The camera has a 1.5-inch non-articulated (fixed) LCD screen and an optical viewfinder. The LCD coverage as about 100% - you can see exactly what will be recorded. The LCD is bright, fluid (unless it is dark), has good visibility in sunlight or darkness and decent resolution.

The camera also has an optical viewfinder that is on the tight side. You will not see everything that will end up on the picture you take, but it is a usual situation with zooming optical viewfinders and is preferred to the opposite (having thought something will be in the frame and then not finding it in the resultant picture).

Computer Connectivity

The camera uses USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection to transfer pictures to a computer. You can also remove the Memory Stick memory card (if you use it) and use a memory card reader (if you have one).

I used the camera with the USB cable supplied. I did not need to install any USB drivers on my Windows 2000 SP4 computer. The file transfer was very fast at about 2,000 KB/s using built-in memory. This is very fast and you might be able to get faster speeds with Memory Stick Pro!

I have not used the software that was provided with the camera since I have Adobe Photoshop CS2.

Reservations

I wish the camera has less noise an ISO 400. Still, you can print 5x7 or 6x4 at ISO 400.

I dislike the fact that the camera uses expensive (and Sony-exclusive) Memory Stick media. SD cards would be a much better choice for us, consumers. But Memory Stick is much better choice for Sony. That way they can make more money.

Also, the camera has no aperture control, which means you only get one aperture settings per focal length (e.g. only f/2.8 is available at wide angle). It still works well, as long as you make sure the camera focused where you want it to and do not expect to have both foreground and background in focus at the same time.

I can see where the money was saved in this camera. There is no A/V out, the LCD is small and the aperture is fixed. But the important items were not left out. The optics is good, the lens goes rather wide, the camera is well built and there is a focus-assist light.

Bottom Line

I recommend Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S40 if you an inexpensive 4.1-Megapixel digital camera with good features and performance. It is easy to use and looks nice too. And while being inexpensive, it avoided some of the sacrifices other camera manufacturers had to make with their inexpensive cameras.

Recommended
Yes

Product Rating
(Excellent)

This review is also available at Epinions.com: Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S40 Digital Camera Review on Epinions.com

My Reviews of Other Digital Cameras