The VE-CG40U is equipped with a Canon 7-21mm zoom lens (equivalent to 33-99mm on 35mm camera.) This is an all-glass lens with 7 elements in 6 groups and has a maximum aperture of F2 (wide) - 2.5 (tele.)

The focusing system works from 0.5m to infinity in wide angle and from 0.8m to infinity in telephoto. Macro coverage is 3.5 - 28 inches in Wide angle and 8 - 28 inches in Telephoto

The real image optical zoom viewfinder is large with a fairly wide viewing angle. It shows approximately 85% of the captured image. There is a diopter adjustment knob on the side. The single LED indicates auto focus status and power.

The builtin flash is auto-adjusting with modes for Auto flash, Red-eye reduction auto, Flash ON, and Flash OFF. The working range was not specified but appears to be approximately 2.5 to 8 feet. It has a 5 second recycle delay with fully charged batteries.

On top is the shutter release (not shown), the Power button and the Mode Dial with positions for Play, Auto, Program AE, Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority, Manual, SCene and Movie modes.

Controls on the back: On top are the zoom lens control buttons (magnified image in playback.) The 4-way selector is for navigating menus and selecting images for review. The teal colored button is the Quick Link download button. The MENU button calls up the menu system. SET/DISPLAY button accepts menu selections or controls the color LCD display when no menu is present. Below the MENU button is the Macro Focus button (Index Playback.) Next to that is the Flash Mode button (Image Delete in playback.) On the lower right is the builtin speaker.

The 1.5-inch CG Silicon display offers double the resolution of traditional LCD screens, enabling the photographer to playback a higher resolution image. Many 1.5-inch displays have as little as 61,000 pixels, the CG Silicon screen has 134,000 pixels. It is noticeably more colorful than most other LCD monitors.

The VE-CG40U stores it data on removeable SD (SecureDigital) flash cards. Sharp supplies a 16MB SD card and states that you can use up to 128MB SD cards - we used a SanDisk 256MB SD card and experienced no problems.

On the side are I/O connectors for Video and Audio output to a television. Video is selectable for NTSC or PAL format



USB 1.1 for data downloads to the computer



DC IN port for the supplied AC power adapter.

Powered by four AA type batteries, a set of alkaline batteries are included. We of course recommend the use of high-capacity and rechargeable NiMH batteries. Sharp claims a battery life of approx. 100 shots with alkaline and 200 shots with NiMH rechargeable type.

Sharp supplies a 110-120V AC power adapter with the camera.