Reviews for Canon Optura 40 Digital Camcorder - 2.5" LCD - CCD2 Megapixel Image - 1.2 Megapixel Video - 14x Optical Zoom - 280x Digital Zoom - 8 MB Secure Digital SD Card Included - MPN: 9544A003 
By member:
bm98
- Dec 3, 2004
Canon Optura 40 Digital Camcorder - 2.5" LCD - CCDStrengths: Small enough to carry around.Great video and ability to shoot decent photos,even in very low light. Weakness: battery supplied is very weak.It only lasts 40 minutes. I'm very happy with this camcorder.It has a lot of settings(manual and automatic)and is able to shoot in very low light.I will highly recommend this product to anyone looking to shoot indoor and outdoor. 91% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
keithincal
- Mar 1, 2005
Canon Optura 40 Digital Camcorder - 2.5" LCD - CCDStrengths: Excellent video quality, very compact, top loading tape Weakness: Could have easier to navigate menus/access to effects and features After nearly six months of reading reviews and ratings on a dozen web sites, I bought this camera and a number of accessories (lenses, fire wire, batteries and charger). The video quality, OVERALL ease of use and features of this camera make me very glad I picked this camera over the Panasonic- the price helped, too! The Canon optics did not let me down and I agree with the other websites that say this camera matches the 3CCD optics of other cameras. I would highly recommend this camera. 79% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
stburns519
- Dec 20, 2004
Canon Optura 40 Digital Camcorder - 2.5" LCD - CCDStrengths: high quality pictures and video; same Digic technology as in Canon's popular Digital Elph's; you can disable the digital zoom, so that only the optical is used Weakness: electronic stabilization, not optical; not a 3CCD It is a great digital camera/camcorder. It produces near 3CCD picture quality in a compact body. If you are still in doubt check other reviews of the product, and then find the cheapest price with Pricegrabber. 71% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
TopTenREVIEWS.com - Jul 16, 2008
Canon Optura 40
Canon Optura 40 receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS score of 3 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #40 MiniDV camcorder of all time. The overall rating represents an intelligent balance of features, value as a function of price to features, and a summary of reviews from a variety of sources. The TopTen REVIEWS' formula gives a picture of important consumer features, market value, and a product's... Top
easycamcorders.com - Oct 15, 2004
Quick Review Camcorders : Canon Optura 40
The Optura 40 features many of the same features as the Optura 30. The imagers of these two camcorders are identical as are many of the manual features. With a slightly better zoom as well as the addition of manual audio control, the Optura 40 enjoys a little better video performance, and better manual control in general. Top
Macworld.com - Oct 11, 2004
Optura 40
We look at six new DV camcorders (and a unique filmless model) with features formerly found only in pro-level models. Top
CamcorderInfo - Jul 1, 2004
Canon Optura 40 Camcorder Review
The Canon Optura 40 is equipped with just over 1.2M effective pixels for video and 2M effective pixels for still images. On the surface, there are only minimal differences between Canon’s Optura 30 and the new Canon Optura 40, which has an identical body and many of the same internal components as its predecessor. The hundred-dollar price increase with the Canon Optura 40 is a necessary... Top 
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Canon Optura 40 Digital Camcorder - 2.5" LCD - CCD
Strengths: Very good video (side-by-side tests with PV-GS200 surprisingly not much different), good digital photos, great audio, lots of ports, hot shoe, focus ring, placement of buttons
Weakness: Wide angle could be wider, zooming up close can't be focused (however, macro is excellent), LCD is muddy, battery too small, night mode is useless for video
I purchased both this and a Panasonic PV-GS200 because I couldn't decide which to get! On its own the Optura 40 is an excellent video camera. I've shot indoors, outdoors, low light, no light, and am VERY impressed. You would think a 1-chip CCD would do worse than a 3-chip, but surprisingly there was video I could literally not tell the difference, viewing on the TV, computer, and AVI file created through the firewire port. There was even one shot where the Optura 40 did better than the Panasonic (sunset). Placement of buttons is perfect, the focus ring function is well designed (the activation button is in the right place), digital photos are good (not digital camera quality but better than the GS200), audio is fantastic and adjustable, lots of manual control. But I have my gripes - the wide angle is not wide enough, the LCD is muddy (the maligned GS200 LCD was much better), battery is only 720maH, night mode is useless for video (could be used for photos if you're very still). If you're looking for a great video camera with a usable digital camera, usable focus ring, great audio, and lots of ports, this camera will not let you down.
98% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?