Kyocera Finecam S3L

Opinion: I bought my S3L in December 2002, and found it to be a compact, solid camera which takes decent quality photos - simple enough to be used by my kids, but with sufficient features and flexibility to keep a decent amateur photographer interested - that is, until two weeks ago....

Opinion: A real value for money buy!Here's why:

1)Small yet sturdy
2)User friendly controls works great for ANYBODY.
3)With the available manual settings,it can handle any lighting conditions be it day or night.
4)Very good image quality.Even in low light conditions,works beautifully without flash.
5)Records video with sound.
6)Costs much much less than better known brands which has similar specs.A real gem of an underdog!!

Opinion: This is easily one of the best digital camera in its range. The CCD size being 1/1.8 is larger than the typical 1/2.7 you see in the 3~4 Mega range. Within it's metering range (digital cameras are usually poorer than film cameras) it does a very good job producing well exposed shots. Occasionally it struggles with the complex lighting conditions, but experienced photographers would know best to compensate in it's menu options. For the very low light or night situations, where the typical digital camera's AF cannot cope, you can use it's infinity mode (mountain icon) and underexpose by -0.7 or -1.0 fstop in the menu. Pics are very smooth from ISO120 to 200, and better than ALL others (in this price range) at ISO400. The other popular brands are typically bad in ISO400 for the consumer range. I bet their CMOS/CCD can at most handle only ISO150, but they stretched it for obvious purpose. Try out the pics from diff camera by bringing your own CF or SD cards to the shops. you can view the results from diff cameras on PC before deciding. The available of some maual controls should appeal to the experienced photographer. Amateurs get room to grow and experiment on!

Opinion: People seem to be skeptical about Kyocera's DC. But, Kyocera is actually the digital Yashica, and Yashica is a very good analog Cam brand. I was making a choice between this and Sony p2. Thank god I chose this. When I saw the highly pixelised images on the Sony, I knew I made the right choice. It is solid, with scratch proof casing, quite compact, and have a whole load of manual features. Picture quality is perfect, except for certain overexposure with the auto settings. It can take good pics without a flash too. Overall, it is a good buy. Too bad it has been overshadowed by more known (not neccesary better) brands.

Opinion: I bought the S3L mainly because it was cheap (£250UKP) for a small, 3 megapixel digicam, hoping for decent quality as a 'carry everywhere', pocket camera.
I very soon found the Finecam to be quite excellent, capable of very good images thanks to a fine lens, and a good feature set, similar to my D1h work camera, such as settings for colour, sharpness, and contrast. Images straight from the camera look a touch unsharp, but this leaves scope for sharpening to be controlled in Photoshop, as can colour saturation - I like this. The S3L also does video clips with sound, handy for parties!
Quite why this digicam is a bit 'unknown' is a mystery to me, as it's really a Contax in different clothes!