Reviews
Kyocera
Finecam SL400R
We like our cameras thin, fast, and fun
Thin.
Fast. Fun. That's the mantra of Kyocera's new Finecam SL400R.
For those who don't have enough time to read this entire review:
it's true. This thing is thin, fast, and fun. Apparently Kyocera,
not exactly a household word in digital cameras, is trying to
reinvent itself with a bunch of interesting products. Their corporate
motto is, ãThe New Value Frontier.ä
What's so
special about the Finecam SL400R that we bring you a review in
Handheld Computing Magazine? Plenty. If you're into handhelds
and the handheld form factor, this camera fits right in. The Finecam
is about the size of a deck of cards, with a footprint smaller
than that of a PDA÷just 2.4x3.9 inches, and it's barely over half
an inch thick. You can stick it in your pocket and there's still
room for a Pocket PC. And it doesn't weigh much either, only 5.1
ounces including battery. Yet, despite its minuscule size, the
little Finecam has a bunch of tricks up its sleeve.
For starters,
this is a full-fledged 4-megapixel camera which can create 2272
x 1704 pixel images, and that's enough for 8x10 prints, or even
11x14. It also has a 3X optical zoom (plus a 3.2X digital zoom).
The zoom mechanism operates entirely inside the camera; the lens
doesn't extend from the body as you zoom into a subject. Another
pleasant surprise is the 1.5 inch color LCD. Kyocera calls its
LCD technology ãDayFine.ä We call it amazing. This display seems
to be transflective. It is very bright indoors, yet completely
readable outdoors, even in direct sunlight. In addition, it is
very sharp and seems to have almost 180-degree viewing angles
both vertically and horizontally.
Even though
it looks like a small metallic rectangular box, the Finecam is
actually a swivel design. If you've ever seen one of Nikon's Coolpix
swivel body digital cameras you know the drill. The right part
of the camera contains the battery, storage card, controls and
display. The left side, the one that swivels, contains the lens
and the flash. The Finecam's lens part rotates both backwards
and forwards by a total of about 220 degrees. That means you can
swivel it backwards and take self portraits and such. If you're
in a crowd, you can hold the camera high above your head and swivel
the body so that you can see what the lens part sees. Or you can
hold it hip-high for those moments when you don't want to attract
attention.
The
final pice de rŽsistance of this camera is what Kyocera calls
RTUNE technology. While this sounds like something you install
under the hood of a Honda, it's actually Kyocera's speed-optimized
image processing circuitry. RTUNE addresses all the areas where
digital camera enthusiasts have come to expect long waits. Wait
til the camera starts up. Wait til the thing finally takes a picture
after you depressed the shutter button. Wait til it's ready to
shoot again. With RTUNE inside the Finecam's sleek metal body
you hardly ever wait. If you push the ãonä button, a Kyocera logo
quickly flashes onto the LCD and within a second or so you're
ready to shoot. The longest you ever wait is the time between
focusing in on a subject and the camera indicating its readiness
with a beep and a small green button on the LCD. That takes maybe
a second. Once you depress the shutter, the picture is taken immediately.
Shot-to-shot time is under a second (unless you use the flash,
of course). Another cool feature is the continuous shooting mode
which lets you take pictures at 3.3 images a second until the
card is full. For that you'll need a card that can write at least
7.7 MB per second. We tried it with one of Lexar's high-speed
32X SD cards. Continuous shooting allows you to take a whole bunch
of pictures of a scene and later pick the best one(s). It works
great that way. However, the focusing mechanism isn't fast enough
to take sharp shots of fast moving subjects.
In terms of
features, the Finecam combines them with simplicity and ease of
operation. You cycle through the four flash modes by simply pushing
up on the navigation disc. Push the menu button to bring up the
very self-explanatory on-screen menu. There is also a movie mode
with audio and up to 640x480 VGA resolution at 30 frames per second.
The menus are context-sensitive and bring up items that pertain
to the chosen mode (Set up, playback, camera, continuous, and
movies). There are also six custom scene modes with presets for
particular situations. The Finecam offers a degree of manual control,
including aperture priority, but this is basically a point&shoot
camera.
For
power, the Finecam uses a rechargeable 3.7V/780mAH Lithium Ion
battery pack. It is charged inside the camera via a power brick
that's actually bulkier than the camera itself. The battery is
supposed to last for about 100 pictures, depending on how much
you use the LCD. We noticed that the camera gets quite hot when
it is left on for a period of time. The Finecam comes with a 16MB
SD card, a cleverly designed protective case, and a USB cable.
On the software side you don't get much, just a limited version
of Adobe Photoshop Album, a pdf manual considerably somewhat elaborate
than the printed six-languages-in-one affair, and Windows USB
drivers.
Picture quality
is good, but you have to fiddle a bit with the settings to learn
what works best for you. It usually takes me a bit to figure out
which of a camera's focus programs work best for me, and this
one was no exception.
How does the
US$399 Kyocera Finecam SL400R stack up against the competition?
We like its small size, swivel body, indoor/outdoor display and
speedy operation. However, the 5-megapixel Sony Cyber-shot T1
is even smaller and has a much larger 2.5-inch indoor/outdoor
display for not that much more money. The swivel body offers unparalleled
flexibility, and a decision for or against the little Finecam
may well come down to this particular design feature.
÷Kirk Linsky
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