Olympus D-40 Zoom Review



Record Modes and Menus
Record mode screen showing onscreen data overlay. Starting in the upper left corner the
"A" indicates Aperture Priority, it can also be "P" for Program AE mode, "S" for Shutter
Priority or "M" for Manual record mode. Shown onscreen is the aperture setting and
shutter speed. The upper right corner is the EV exposure compensation factor (0.0). The
green "46" indicates the number of pictures remaining at the current size and quality
setting. The white rectangle tells you it is in single frame drive mode and the
flash is disabled. The ISO is locked to 100, image size
is 2288 x 1712 and the quality is SHQ.
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This is Aperture priority mode, note the bar underneath of the aperture value, that
indicates this is the setting to be changed. It works the same in shutter speed
priority with the bar appearing below the shutter speed value.
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New to any Olympus camera is the "My" exposure mode. You create your own set of
custom parameters and then save it to be called up anytime the Mode Dial is turned to
the My mode position.
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The screen display when in Movie mode - note the little icon of the movie camera in the
upper left. The green "282" indicates there is enough memory to record 282 seconds
total of video. You can record up to 32 seconds of HQ (320x240 pixel) resolution
QuickTime motion JPEG with audio at 15 frames per second. Or you can record up to 130
seconds of SQ (160x120 pixel) with audio at 15fps. Note that a 32MB or bigger SM card
is required for this. The optical zoom can be used in movie mode but only if the
sound recording feature has been disabled.
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When manually focusing you get an onscreen display of the camera to subject distance
(feet or meters is selected in the menu). When you alter the focus in manual mode it
displays a magnified view onscreen which makes it a lot simpler to actually "see" the
proper focus point.
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Pressing the MENU button while in the AUTO (Point and Shoot) mode brings up a brief
menu of options to enable the selftimer, set the image size (SHQ, HQ, SQ1 or SQ2),
or enter Card Setup to format the SmartMedia card.
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Pressing the MENU button while in P/A/S/M record modes will bring this
shortcut menu overlay on the screen. From here you can quickly jump to the DRIVE
modes, image size/quality or white balance settings. Choosing the MODE MENU option
brings up the entire menu of record options as shown in the next series of animated
screens.
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CAMERA menu
DRIVE - Single, Multi, Multi-AF, or AE Bracketing ISO - Sensitivity: Auto, 100, 200, 400 P/A/S/M - Select the mode for the P/A/S/M position on the mode dial
NOISE REDUCTION - Enable noise reduction for long exposures DIGITAL ZOOM - Enable/disable digital zoom FULLTIME AF - Enable/disable continuous autofocus
PANORAMA - Panorama mode (only available with Olympus brand SmartMedia cards) FUNCTION - Off, B&W, Sepia, White Board, Black Board ![]()
PICTURE menu
WB - White balance: Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Incandescent, Flourescent or One-Touch custom
SHARPNESS - From -5 to +5 in 1-step increments CONTRAST - From -5 to +5 in 1-step increments SATURATION - From -5 to +5 in 1-step increments ![]()
CARD menu
CARD SETUP - Format the SmartMedia card ![]()
SETUP menuALL RESET - Off or On: On resets all settings to default when power is turned off, the Off setting retains all current settings.
SHUTTER SOUND - Off or choice of two different sound effects PW ON SETUP - Select the screen and audio shown at power up PW OFF SETUP - Select the screen and audio shown at power down |
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