SONY CYBER-SHOT DSC-S40

Review and photo example of the SONY Cyber-shot DSC-S40.

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The DSC-S40 is a compact digital camera released by Sony in April 2005.

Detailed specifications are listed in the table below, but its main features include a 4-megapixel CCD sensor and a 3x zoom lens with a 32mm-96mm focal length in 35mm format.

The sensor size is 1/2.7 inches, and the actual focal length at the wide-angle end is 5.1mm, which can also be confirmed from the conversion to a 32mm focal length in 35mm format (conversion magnification 6.15).

The camera responds well after pressing the power button, and you can take pictures almost instantly.
The zoom-linked real-image optical viewfinder does not allow you to check the focus position, only the shooting range.
The actual focus can be confirmed by the sound of focusing and the rear LCD, but the sound of focusing does not indicate where the focus is (the camera only makes a sound when it thinks it is in focus), and the LCD on the rear is 1.5 inches and 77,000 dots, which is the spec from the early 2000s, so the quality of the displayed image is low and unreliable.

The lens distortion of the captured JPG images is large, and the distortion is noticeable depending on the subject. Affinity Photo 2 has lens distortion correction, but the DSC-S40 does not have it. However, if you select “Filter” > “Distortion” > “Lens Correction” > “DSC-S60” > “Carl Zeiss DSC-S60 & Compatible (standard)”, it will be corrected to a certain extent.

Many image processing software programs have a lens distortion correction function, so if you cannot find the exact model, you should be able to get a reasonable result by trying a similar model.

When executing, it is recommended that you edit and save the copied image and keep the original image as it is, as future technological advances may allow for more precise correction. If all you care about is the results, you may want to edit the original.

The auto white balance works well under sunny skies, but it becomes yellowish under LED lighting.

Also, the ISO sensitivity setting is literally only auto in auto mode, and can be set from 80 to 400 in program and scene selection modes. ISO 200 or higher brings out noise, so I recommend using 80 or 100.
There is no shooting mode that allows you to set the exposure and shutter speed, and the only function that controls exposure, exposure compensation, is in the menu, so it is a bit of a hassle to change it depending on the scene. I think it would be better if it was assigned to a button, but the buttons are assigned to flash, quick view, light metering method, and self-timer, so it’s a shame that there is no exposure compensation.
The flash also has a low reach, so I always use it with it off.

There are two types of images to shoot, fine and normal, and a 4-megapixel fine image is just under 2MB, so if you use a 2GB memory card, you can take more than 1,000 images. However, the image size of Olympus SHQ images is about 3MB, which is about 2/3 the capacity, so the images are recorded more compressed than Olympus.

The compatible memory card is Memory Stick, and since it is also compatible with the Pro version, if you use the Memory Stick Duo Adapter MSAC-M2, you can use high-capacity cards of 2GB or more.

The camera runs on two AA batteries. The following batteries can be used:

Alkaline battery
Nickel-metal hydride battery
Lithium battery

As for battery life, I haven’t used it too hard, but I took about 100 pictures with two nickel-metal hydride batteries and there still seems to be some charge left.

The fact that the battery compartment and memory card compartment are separate is an advantage of this camera. With cameras that use round AA or AAA batteries and have a combined battery compartment and memory card compartment, when you open the cover to remove the memory card, the battery may pop out and reset internal information such as the clock and shooting settings. Especially with older cameras where the built-in battery or capacitor is worn out, the moment the battery pops out, everything is reset, making it a pain to have to set it up again, so I think it’s a good design to have the battery compartment and memory card compartment separate like this camera.

The DCS-S40 uses the same basic system as the DSC-L1 released in October 2004, and the lenses, rear LCD screen, sensor size, and pixel count are the same, making them like sibling cameras.

The differences between the two are threefold: battery, memory card, and viewfinder.

Camera	DSC-S40	DSC-L1
Battery	2 x AA batteries	NP-FT1 NP-FD1(Infolithium)
Recorded media	Memory stick /Pro	Memory stick Duo /Pro
Finder	Real image optics	none

Before I looked into the history of the DCS-S40, I thought that the DSC-S40 was released first and that the DSC-L1 was a smaller version of that, but I learned that the DSC-S40 was released later.

When I looked up the DSC-S series model number for this DSC-S40, I found that in addition to the S40, the DSC-S series also includes five other models: the S30, S50, S70, S75, and S85.
The S70 was released in March 2000, the S30 and S50 in April 2000, the S75 in April 2001, and the S85 in June 2001.
Looking at the commonality of the body casing, the S70 is a single body, the S30 and S50 have a common body, and the S75 and S85 also have a common body, so there are three body types, each with a similar design taste, and there is no doubt that these five models form the S series.
Among them, the DSC-S40 was released in 2004, at a time separate from the other S series cameras, and the body has no common features. In fact, it would have been fine to give it the same model number as the DCS-L1, which has almost the same camera functions. The reason this was not done is that the DSC-S40 is larger and cheaper than the DSC-L1, so it would not be desirable from a marketing perspective to sell it as an improved version of the DSC-L1, and so the name DCS-L2 was not given to it.

Specification and Competitor

Items	S30	S50	S70	S75	S85	S40
Zoom	x3	←	←	←	←	←
Focal length	39-117	←	34-102	←	←	32-96
Lens Brand	Sony	←	Carl Zeiss	←	←	←
Lens Construction	Unknown	←	11elements in 7groups	←	←	7elements in 6groups
Lens Bright	F2.8-2.9	←	F2-2.5	←	←	F2.8-5.1
Number of Pixels	1.25 million	2.02 million	3.24 million	←	3.98 million	4.1 million
Image sensor	1/2.7	←	1/1.8	←	←	1/2.7
Finder	Real image optics	←	←	←	←	←
LCD size Number of pixels	1.8インチ 12万	←	←	←	←	1.5インチ 7.7万
Battery	NP-FM50	←	←	←	←	2 x AA batteries
Recorded media	Memory stick	←	←	←	←	Memory stick / Pro
Weight(g) Only body	316	←	310	352	←	132
Size(mm)	113×68×69	←	117×71×64	←	←	99× 52× 34
Release date	2000.4	2000.4	2000.3	2001.4	2001.6	2005.4
Body Color	Silver	←	←	Gray	Black	Silver