I bought an SX40 about a month ago and returned it within 3 days. It felt very cheap, and the quality of the photos did not seem any better than those of my FZ35 which I've had for about 2 years. Another consideration is the Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ150, which in my view is a far better camera than the SX40.
Made better, more features, better images.
I respect Canon as a company and have owned their cameras for many, many years, but I would not recommend the SX40. I also owned the camera 4 or 5 models previous to it, the S5i, which was a great camera.
I recommend you go DSLR or DMC FZ150.
In any event, try to buy a camera made in Japan (such as Canon and Panasonic).
The build quality and attention to detail are excellent, not that this is any new or secret information.
