Customer reviews from usa.canon.com
Canon - PowerShot SX40 HS 12.1-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black
Average customer rating
4.7
(125 Reviews)
Rating breakdown 125 reviews
5 Stars
97
4 Stars
19
3 Stars
8
2 Stars
1
1 Star
0
90%of customers recommend this product.
(
111 out of
123)
Customer Reviews for Canon - PowerShot SX40 HS 12.1-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black
Customer Rating
5
Great camera
on March 8, 2012
Posted by: stretch
from Ohio
Bought this to update my old A630. Did not want to go into an SLR. I still am a point and shoot kinda gal but do like to play with options and other settings. Happy, happy. Had to have tilt arm to take pictures of wildflowers upside down. Wanted more zoom to take pictures of eagles on nests and maybe a bear or two from afar. Was out watching eagles with some mighty serious camera people with huge camera & lens and they were totally impressed with what my camera could do. They thought zoom was excellent. Burst of 8 pictures option got the eagle coming into the nest, wings full out. My pictures were as good as theirs. Love this camera. Wish it came with instruction book to carry along. Happy, happy. I am on my 4th Canon now and am glad i stuck with Canon.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
So far, my dream camera
on March 4, 2012
Posted by: canon fan
from NE Georgia
This is my 5th canon Point and Shoot. I bought it to replace my 130 because it combines an awesome zoom lens with an optical viewfinder. Have had the camera for a few weeks now and taken on vacation. I have not had long enough to try out the manual possibilities. However: Great night and long-distancce shoats using auto settings. Beautiful family group photos as well.
Yes, I wish it had a printed manual for this price but have loaded the pdf manual on my mobile devices.
It would be nice to have raw and other file forms but I can barely keep up with digital processing of my photos so that did not deter me from purchasing.
The recovery rate is a bit slower than I like but I think that once I master the burst mode that will be less of an issue.
Canon - please keep up with your trend back to including optical viewfinders.
Yes, I wish it had a printed manual for this price but have loaded the pdf manual on my mobile devices.
It would be nice to have raw and other file forms but I can barely keep up with digital processing of my photos so that did not deter me from purchasing.
The recovery rate is a bit slower than I like but I think that once I master the burst mode that will be less of an issue.
Canon - please keep up with your trend back to including optical viewfinders.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
will not disapoint
on March 3, 2012
Posted by: Caybryt
This is an excellent bridge camera. But like a lot have said it lacks in some aspects. I do believe it is designed for the begginer that is why so many of the things it can do is turned off. I say turned off because that is basically what it is. If you want to see what this camera will really do, search CHDK and put it on an sd card. WOW!! NOW THATS A CAMERA!! Save in RAW, tons more options like, more fstop, a lot higher lower shutter speed and iso, time lapse, motion detection for lightning strikes, remote shutter and a plethera of other things.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
Best Ever Camera
on March 1, 2012
Posted by: Bob
from Pratt, KS
I echo all the Pros that the other reviewers have posted and say that this is a fantastic all purpose camera. I do think that Canon should have furnished the small hard copy manual. My solution was: I took the disk and had my local printing shop to print the 220 pages(both sides), cut the 4" x 6" pages, install the manual in plastic laminated covers with wire coiled binder. I had first downloaded the manual from Canon's web page, but found that every page had a watermark (COPY). I guess Canon was afraid someone would copy this manual and sell it. I now have the entire manual (4" x 6" x 1/2") that will fit into my camera bag that is printed on better paper than Canon's Getting Started Guide that was furnished and is very professional looking.
Pros: everything
Cons: no hard copy manual
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
Some advice for owners
on February 24, 2012
Posted by: Kingira
from The VIllages, Fl
I have and SD780, 980, and sx130. This camera has, by far much better IQ. It is a bit large but with that comes the fantastic zoom I read several complaints about the lack of a hard copy manual. I find that downloading the PDF file and leaving it on the desktop of my computer and saving it on my phone is much easier. It is infinitely easier to search for things in that form.
Pros: great zoom and iq
Cons: too large to be a pocket camera
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
4
Hard copy Manual
on February 23, 2012
Posted by: Muravu
from Tampa,Fl
I had this camera for two months. Despite its exellent potentials, I am frustrated not being able to take advantage of them. Canon skimped in not poroviding a hard copy detailed manual and instead only an online version. Great for many but for those others with limited access to it, the very expensive option left is to print 200+ pages. Why cannot Canon atleast offer an option to purchase a printed manual? I had Canon Powershot S5 IS and benefitted by such a manual.
Pros: improved over my s5 is
Cons: no hard copy manual
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
Great Camera!
on February 21, 2012
Posted by: Moose
from Ohio
I love my new camera - the zoom is amazing! Still getting used to using such a long zoom, but I'm getting it. And the pictures are great. The buttons are all easy to use and pretty much self explanatory. The battery life is MUCH better than I expected, and charging is quick too. My only "dislike" is that I keep pressing the top 2 buttons on the back with my thumb. The grip is not as deep as my last camera, and I don't know if I really need to use my thumb more to hold the camera - and in doing so I hit the buttons accidentally. Other than that, I am VERY happy with this camera.
Pros: great zoom., great battery life., quick charge., lots of creative options
Cons: needs deeper grip.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
3
Great camera with one fatal limitation
on February 20, 2012
Posted by: AKBear
from Alaska
My wife and I have been using this camera for a couple of months now. We really enjoy the power of the zoom lens and it has enabled us to get some great shots. But living in Alaska, one of the greatest photographic opportunities we have is the aurora. This camera would not allow us to take a decent shot. The sx40hs will only allow us to use iso 100 or lower if we want to use an exposure time of over 1 second. At iso 100, even at 15 seconds the pictures were almost completely dark. At 1 second at iso 1600 or 3200, the aurora was visible but not great. My daughter had her Rebel T1i out and took some outstanding pictures using high iso setting and longer exposures. I have used many Canon digital cameras over the years from cheaper powershots to previous versions of the sx40hs like the sx3is. I have always been able to use higher iso settings with long exposure times to get decent aurora pictures. Canon needs to fix it so you can use ISO settings up to at least 1600 for the full 15 seconds in Manual and shutter priority modes. It was a major disappointment not to be able to use a camera in this price range to take decent aurora shots.
Pros: zoom lens
Cons: can't use exposure over 1 sec at more than iso 100
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com