Pentax Optio A40 Review

Here you can see the fully automatic "Auto Picture" mode. The camera selects all of the exposure settings, you just simply point-n-shoot. Minimal information is displayed, only exposure mode, face detection, memory source, number of remaining images, battery indicator, and the time and date.

When the shutter is half-pressed and the autofocus locks, the active AF point bracket will shrink and turn green. The lightning bolt means the flash is set to fire. Shutter speed and aperture values are also displayed. The "waving hand" symbol indicates that the Shake Reduction feature is set to Auto.

Program AE mode, is also an automatic exposure mode, but it still allows you to select from many menu or function options like ISO, White Balance, etc.

When you select the program option from the shooting mode screen, you will automatically be given the option of shooting in Program, Shutter Priority or Manual modes.

Green mode is another automatic shooting mode. This is the simplest mode available. There are absolutely no choices for you to make. The camera does everything automatically, the only thing you do is point and shoot.

Press the 4-way controller down "MODE" to change the exposure mode. Choices are: Auto Picture, Program AE, Night Scene, Movie, Voice Recording, Landscape, Flower, Portrait, Kids, Digital SR, Sport, Pet, Text, Food, and Frame Composite. Inside of Program, Portrait and Sport you will find a little sub-menu like the one shown above for the program mode, that will allow you to further define your shooting mode.

Pressing the 4-way controller left brings up you flash options, up is the drive mode and timer, and right is your focus mode including manual focus and macro focus. The Optio A40 lets you get up close and personal with its Macro and Super Macro focus modes. Macro covers 4.7 inches (0.12 m) to 1.31 ft (0.4m), while Super Macro covers 2.4 inches (0.06m) to 5.8 inches (0.15m).

Record Menu options:

Recorded Pixels - 12M, 10M, 7M, 5M, 3M, 1024, 640
Quality Level - Best (***), Better (**) or Good (*)
White Balance - Auto, Daylight, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent or Manual
AF Setting - Choose focusing area, focus limiter, and turn the AF-assist lamp On or Off
AE Metering - Multi segment, Center-weighted or Spot
Sensitivity - Auto (choose from 5 Auto settings), 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600
EV Compensation - ±2.0 in 1/3EV steps
Movie - Adjust movie mode settings (shown below)
Shake Reduction - On/Off
Digital Zoom - On/Off
Instant Review - 0.5, 1, 2, 3, or 5 secs. and Off
Face Priority - On or Off
D-Range Comp. - Off, Auto, Strong, Weak
One Push PF - On or Off
Memory - Saves shooting function settings when camera is turned off
Green Button - Define function of the GREEN button
Sharpness - Hard, Normal or Soft
Saturation - Hard, Normal or Soft
Contrast - Hard, Normal or Soft
Date Imprint - On or Off

Movie mode lets you record DivX® (MPEG-4 compliant) motion video in 640x480 or 320x240 resolution with audio. There are also three quality choices to choose from. The length of movies is limited only by available memory or up to 2GB in file size. Because it does capture sound, the optical zoom may not be used while recording. However, you can preset the focal length before you begin to work around this. It also features a digital anti-shake system to reduce the occurrence of camera shake in your movies.

Movie options found under the Rec. Menu.

Record Pixels - 640x480 or 320x240
Quality Level - Best (***), Better (**) or Good (*)
Movie SR - On or Off