Cleaning out at work for an office move, we happened upon an old Canon Powershot A40. Boxed in pretty mint condition, this little compact was released in 2002. Producing a by now standards, obsolete 2MP at best image quality, this little machine was heading for the rubbish bin.

For those of you who remember shooting with 35mm compact zoom cameras, the A40 is an excellent digital rendition. The grip and reach for the zoom are just right. The rear 1.5″ color screen (with live display!) function well for the vintage, and Canon’s mode select wheel, along with other controls are easy to reach and use.

Of course with 2MP, your post cropping options are slim! 1600×1200 is the best you get from it. I generally size to 1000 on my images here. That being said, back in 2002 a heck of a lot of people were still printing their images, and generally to the 4″x6″ print, which depending what you are viewing my post on, is likely smaller than the screen you are using.

The 35-105mm zoom has been the average pretty standard for some time on many standard compacts, and gives both wide enough and enough zoom to capture whats around you.

I think considering what a rotten day it was – overcast, raining, the A40 did a pretty good job for an old piece of kit. I’ll give it another run sometime when summer remembers its on its way.

Its output also reminds me a lot of the standard chemist developed films from the 90’s.

So for now the old A40 is safe from the bin. But more for the novelty value as even all but the cheapest of mobile phones carry more output power, and in much smaller packages that suck a lot less power.

All shots taken around One Tree Hill in Auckland.