Reviews

Kyocera SL-400R

Thin. Fast. Fun. Thatās the mantra of Kyoceraās elegant new Finecam SL400R. For those who donāt have enough time to read this entire review: itās 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, ćThe New Value Frontier.ä

Whatās so special about the Finecam SL400R that we bring you a full review in Digital Camera Magazine? Plenty. If youāre into tiny, ultra-light cameras that you can carry anywhere, this little beauty fits right in. The Finecam is about the size of a deck of cards, with a footprint smaller than that of a Palm PDA÷just 2.4 x 3.9 inches, and itās barely over half an inch thick. You can stick it in your pocket and thereās still room for a bunch of other stuff. And it doesnāt weigh much either, only 5.1 ounces including battery. Yet, despite its minuscule size, the little Finecam has plenty of tricks up its sleeve.

For starters, this is a full-fledged 4-megapixel camera which can create 2272 x 1704 pixel images, and thatās enough for 8 x 10 prints, or even 11 x 14s. It also has a 3X optical zoom (plus a 3.2X digital zoom). The zoom mechanism operates entirely inside the camera; the lens doesnāt 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 ćDayFine.ä We call it totally 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 youāve ever seen one of Nikonās 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 Finecamās 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 youāre 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 donāt want to attract attention.

The final pice de rŽsistance of this camera is what Kyocera calls RTUNE technology. While this sounds like something you install under the hood of a Honda, itās actually Kyoceraās 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 itās ready to shoot again. With RTUNE inside the Finecamās sleek metal body you hardly ever wait. If you push the ćonä button, a Kyocera logo quickly flashes onto the LCD and within a second or so youāre 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 youāll need a card that can write at least 7.7 MB per second. We tried it with one of Lexarās 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 isnāt 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 thatās 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 donāt 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 cameraās 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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