Kyocera Finecam SL400R

Opinion: I bought the SL400 as a pocket camera to take family photos and snapshots.
It's small size is perfect in this respect. The build quality is excellent, it swivels
like the earlier Nikon coolpix cameras, plus it's stylish in sexy stainless steel.
Image quality is what one would expect from a 4 megapixel point & shoot and
is quite good right out of the camera with no photoshop tweaking. Has all of
the usual features (including video mode) which are easily and quickly
accessed.

Opinion: Comparison of Kyocera SL400R with Sony DSC-T1

I had an opportunity to compare the two ultracompact side by side for indoor and outdoor pictures at identical situations.

Here is what I find:
The Kycocera clearly takes the lead for indoor pictures such as taken at parties etc. Although the Sony has a light assist focus, this helps little to get pictures under dim light conditions. The light assist only brings an advantage when being very close to the object. Also the Kycoera has a pretty reasonable flash - given the small size.

Details: We compared the two cameras for details. Both cameras do gerat. The Sony seems to give a little bit more detail. Yet, this is marginal and proably is merely due to the 5 Megapixel compared with the 4 Megapixels of the Kyocera.
Also it looks, that the Sony produces stronger colors under daylight situations.

In conclusion, if you are looking for an ultracompact, I would recommend the Kyocera over the Sony if you also think of using the camera for indoor pictures as well. If you only take landscape images both cameras do extremely well. The Kyocera is more versatile due to the swivel body and the optional filter adapers and the Sony produes stronger colors.

Opinion: Swivel body, ultra-compact camera with very good image and video quality.

Image quality:
Daytime images: Excellent image quality, that fully meets expectations of a 4M pixel camera.
Flashimages: There is a built in flash, that allows taking pictures over reasonable distances (2 to 4 m). Unfortunately the autofocus works poorly under dim light conditions. Fortunately the camera comes with a built in manual focus so that you can always use the camera.

A major adavantge of the camera over any other ultracompact is the swivel body. Thanks to the swivel body you will be able to put the camera on any flat surface or hold it onto a poll etc so that you can take night time images and self timer images without a tripod. I like this, because I seldom carry a tripod with me - in particular when I go out with a compact camera.

Another major advantage of the camera is the optional filter thread. This way you finally have a compact camera that permits you to add polarizer filters etc that used to be the privilege of larger cameras. (Polarizer filters are used to filter white glares from the sun that take away quite a bit of the colors).

Video quality: The quality of the videos you can take with this camera will suprise you (30 fps with 640x480 dots). You may take video clips of any length - of course this takes memory. The only thing I found is the somehow grainy video quality under dim light conditions. Yet, all of my other cameras have the same issue to some extent.

To refill the battery you only need to attach the power cord to the camera without extracting the battery or needing a cradle. The camera has the standard small USB connector, which makes directly downloading images without card reader very convenient. Kyocera provides the USB to small USB converter cable within the package.

All the features are easily accessible and conveniently located.

It is hard to say which of the two cameras, the Sony DSC-T1 or the Kyocera Finecam SL400R is any better without performing a in-depth test series. From what I have read and from what I see now from the Kyocera, I tend to believe that the Kyocera can keep up or exceed the image quality. However, the swivel body and the optional lens makes this camera way more versatile then the Sony.

Opinion: Nice small fast camera, but has a quite large barrel distortion.
Bad feedback from Kyocera with respect to customer questions.
Many pictures result in less sharp pictures, due to movement by hand and or camera optics.
At lower light levels using the "sports" scene it will not be possible to achieve sharp images. However at normal outside conditions good images can be achieved.
Price 385 Euro by Internet + 110 Euro for a Ultra 256 Mb SD card.
Battery has often to be recharged, disadvantage this has to be done with the battery in the camera.