Really very good photo quality; almost rivaling some early DLSR's. This is remarkable because if you read my a540 review you can see how I was lamenting that compact cameras weren't going anywhere in terms of photo quality. This came out just a year later,

In general a very good meter; I can point it right at the sun on semi cloudy day and it all comes out okay. The only times it gave me issues was photographing wildlife against snow on a sunny day, which is challenging no matter what the camera.

Very small and portable, I bought a small vinyl case with a magnetic flap and carry it in my pocket all the time.

Good Hi-Def movies; I think they're 720P. I've had a few people think they were taken with a real camcorder.

Very good to excellent noise control for a compact; only really dim lighting shows smudges or jpeg artifacts.

Lithium Ion battery....one of the great developments of mankind. It will last for hundreds of shots; sit idle for weeks or even months, and still be ready to go. One of big name professional reviewers always advocates AA batteries as they can be had anywhere; but I strongly disagree. Alkalines only go for a few shots anymore; while NIMH's don't hold charges and always seem to go bad in 6 months to a year. On the cameras I have that use NIMH's (like a D1-H), the batteries can be properly conditioned and charged, yet still suddenly die, and carrying a handful is impractical. For this camera I have a total of 3; and usually get by with one.

It is a compact, and thus doesn't have the shot to shot speed of a DSLR or the dynamic range; I only have a +/- exposure compensation of 2EV while most cameras do 5.

There is a practical limit of how small these can be, and the controls are tiny and require a little finesse to use.

Can be frail; after less than six months of use the camera was one day very warm as I took it out of my pocket and would only open the lens partway; alternately shutting off or showing a blank screen. Canon fixed it under warranty and the problem was due to a bad PCB board. It's been okay since then.

For a long time I scoffed at carrying around a compact camera. I was singularly unimpressed with the quality of photos from my Canon A540 and S3. They used AA batteries; weren't particularly small, and had all kinds of problems with blown highlights and noise in low lighting.

In April of 2010 I was nearly run over at a crosswalk by some guy in a sports car who then pulled into the parking lot to confront me, even though I was in my rights to cross and the vehicles in the opposite lane had stopped. I decided after that to always have a camera with me to document the next time something like that happened.

Of course I never saw the guy again, but the SD940 has been a superb compact to keep in your pocket for those spur of the moment photos.

Customer Service

Prompt and efficient via the Canon website.

Similar Products Used:

Canon a540