Pentax Australia says:

Pentax Optio M40

An ultra-slim, standard-class, compact digital camera with a well balanced basic function and 8.0 effective megapixel

Pentax Corporation is pleased to announce the Pentax Optio M40, a standard-class compact digital camera that is easy to carry with ultra-slim and lightweight body. The Optio M40 is well-balanced with basic functions and high resolution of 8.0 megapixels. 

While the Optio M40 comes with an ultra-slim, metallic body of sophisticated sense, being equipped with enhanced basic functions such as 3X optical zoom, a large and easily viewable LCD monitor, and excellent operability, it also realises much higher resolution. In addition, the Optio M40 also includes a face recognition function and an anti-shake function, for which there are high market needs, and has been created as a user-friendly model that can be broadly used by many people at various scenes.

Main Features

1. An ultra-slim body with a sophisticated texture - By using an exclusive slim battery and making the circuit board smaller, it is possible to realise an ultra-slim body of just 18mm. High quality aluminium alloy is also used for the outer cover, giving the camera a sophisticated texture.

2. 8.0 Effective megapixels produce exceptionally fine-detailed photos - Optio M40 delivers high-resolution photos that look sharp even at large magnifications thanks to its upgraded 8.0 effective megapixels, which precisely captures images down to the finest details.

3. Digital SR (Shake Reduction) –  A mode that reduces camera shakes and blurring of the subject when photographing still images. The sensitivity is adjusted automatically, to as high as the ultra high sensitivity of ISO3200, to match the brightness of the subjects. This enables for photography with fast shutter speeds, and images with less blurs can be obtained.

4. Face Recognition AF & AE function that is convenient when photographing portrait –  The Optio M40 is equipped with a “Face Recognition AF & AE” function that automatically detects and focuses on faces, regardless of where the people appear in the photo frame. In addition, optimal exposure settings are automatically conducted so that the areas with faces are not darkened even if there is backlighting. 

5. Diversity of flash photography possible –  The Optio M40 is equipped with a powerful flash photography performance that enables for subjects in dark locations to be captured brightly and clearly at a distance of up to approximately 15.5m, due to a flash that uses a large amount of light and the ultra-sensitivity of “Digital SR”. It also comes with some functions such as “Soft Flash” function that prevents overexposure of people’s skin, when photographing at close distances by controlling the amount of light emitted. These functions allow diverse flash photography. 

6. Auto Picture mode automatically determines the best settings for the shooting conditions – The Auto Picture mode lets the camera automatically determines the shooting conditions for Landscape, Portrait, Night Scene and Normal mode and choose the optimum settings for each subject. This Pentax original function makes photography a lot easier for users since it eliminates the necessity of making a number of individual settings. 

7. Variety of 16 different photography modes that can be selected according to the purpose –  Specific sense and subjects can be photographed using one of the 16 different photography modes such as new “Natural Skin Tone”, “Flower”, “Sport”, “Pet” and “Food” that are set with the optimum exposure, white balance, etc depending on the scene or subject. Selection of photography mode is very simple, thanks to the unique “Mode Palette” icon displayed on the monitor. 

8. 3X Optical zoom and 4X digital zoom for a maximum of about 12X magnification –  The Optio M40 features a 3X optical zoom lens with a focal range covering angles of view equivalent to those of a 36-108mm lens in 35mm format, which is ideal for a broad spectrum of subjects from landscapes, through memorial photographs to portraits. Such zooming power can also be combined with 4X digital zoom to achieve a total of about 12X zoom capability. 

9. Large, easy-to-view 2.5 inch LCD monitor – Although the body of the camera is compact, the Optio M40 comes with a large, 2.5 inch monitor with an improved pixel number of approximately 150,000 pixels. This enables for not only photography and playback to be done easily, but for settings and operations for the camera to be carried out easily as well, since the menu display is large and easy to view. The Optio M40 is also equipped with an “Economy mode” that promotes energy saving by dimming the backlight automatically after a certain period of time has passed. 

10. Other features – 

• Equipped with Movie SR (shake reduction) function, which enables movies to be delivered with high quality image rivalling camcorders.
• Auto Macro mode allows for close-up photography as near as 10cm during the normal focusing mode.
• Auto-tracking AF continuously focusing on a moving subject.
• New Date Imprint function for easier images categorizing.
• World time function for 75 cities (28 times zones) worldwide.
• Calendar display function allows easier image retrieval based on the capture date
• Approximately 21.9 MB of built-in memory.
• FotoNation’s red-eye compensation function for flash shots.
• Includes the ACDSee for Pentax Image viewer/image management software
• Support PictBridge, DPOF functions, Exif Print and PRINT Image Matching III.