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November 5, 2007

Pentax Optio M40 compact camera

The sales blurb that comes with Pentax’s Optio M40 states that its new camera is "a standard-class compact digital camera that is easy to carry". Talk about under-selling a brilliant product.

The Pentax Optio M40 has everything you need to produce fantastic photographs, with the bonus of great looks.

Its pleasingly slim brushed metallic body hides a host of great and mostly useful features, the best of these being the Pentax Optio M40's super macro focus, which lets you get closer than you could ever imagine to tiny subjects.

There's a pleasing soft flash for when you don’t want your photos to appear washed out, and the Pentax Optio M40's Green Button works well as an easy shot mode. Alternatively, it can be programmed to open one of a dozen menu items, such as exposure or white balance.

The by-now seemingly obligatory face-recognition and digital shake technologies are present in the Pentax Optio M40, but the real little gem is a feature that most people will overlook – the flash. On most digital cameras, the flash struggles beyond a range of around five metres, invariably leaving your subject in the dark. But the Pentax Optio M40 has a flash range of a magnificent 15 metres, which makes it perfect for that dimly lit party.

And the Pentax Optio M40 is very easy to use, with a simple navigation system (conducted on the 2.5in display) aided by a series of pop-up help boxes that explain all the icons. You also get such child-friendly features as a choice of colourful surrounds, and Pet mode – which pre-selects the colour of your pet to help get the best auto settings. Useful? Maybe not, but it is a lot of fun.

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Independent customer reviews from

Pentax Optio M40 scored:
9.3 out of 10 100% real reviews

The 2 most helpful reviews based on 5 reviews:

27 Nov 2007 Pauline, Burgess Hill

10

Good Points

does everything you want but remains small and compact

Bad Points

silver strap holder at side a bit obtrusive

31 Jan 2008 Loizos, Manchester

8

Good Points

cheap and quite nice pics :)

Bad Points

havent found any yet

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User Reviews

Saturday, 10 November 2007

Reviewed by Arthur Scrimshaw

Star Rating: rating of 2

Duration of ownership: 21 days

Strengths:
Small, well made & good battery life

Weaknesses:
Couldn't get consistent results, interior shots were either washed out, or grainy - exterior in good lighting were good. Had it on three weeks trial and eventually gave up and sent it back.

Overall Evaluation:
Are we talking about the same camera? - maybe it was faulty, but I was totally underwhelmed by this.

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Total reviews: 4,313

See product specs

expert rating

Build quality

4.5/5

Features

4.5/5

Value for money

5/5

Overall

4.5/5

expert rating

PC Advisor Reader Ratings

2/5

Pentax Optio M40 compact camera

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