Kyocera SL300R 3.17 MP Slim Design Digital Camera w/ 3X Optical

Rating:
Summary: Awesome...
Review: This is the 5th digital camera I have experience with... 2 Canon PowerShots, the Archos AVCam attachment for an AV3x0 and some piece of junk I borrowed. The only significant fault I can find with this camera is that the glass lens cover is exposed and for the first few times I used it I kept getting my fingerprints on it - get over it... Sure it comes with a small SD card and you need to get a bigger one (I got a 256MB one to replace the obviously inadequate 16MB one it comes with). So what? Look at other digital cameras - same thing. Battery life seems GREAT to me. Sure if you are a moron and just turn it on and leave it on allowing it to auto-focus on everything you will run the battery down quickly - duh. The most fabulous feature of this camera is that it boots amazingly quickly. Turn it off after you take a picture and turn it back on when you want to take another - common sense... Perfect size, very intuitive controls, great picture and movie quality, ultra fast boot and the rapid shot feature is great. I am a picky early adopter gadget freak and this device is awesome! I have a Kyocera Palm phone device (my 3rd Palm/cell phone combo after a Samsung and a TREO) and both of these Kyocera devices are great!

Rating:
Summary: great camera but worthless battery life
Review: Well, my wife rarely buys me gifts, but she could hardly contain her enthusiasm when she presented me with this gorgeous little camera for no reason. I've had 3 digitals- an original Sony Mavica, a Toshiba, and currently a Fuji Finepix 6800Z. I was really taken by the small size and function of this little beauty, but I was a little worried when there was no mention anywhere - on line, in the owners manual - of battery life. Well, for good reason. The lithium ion battery, fully charged, only gave me 35 minutes of life. I used it as I would if I were on a trip - snapping away, about 30 pictures, a few rapid sequence pictures, and a short movie. I kept the LCD display on dim, and didn't pre or post view the images, to keep battery use down. I was incredibly disappointed when the battery dipped into the low range after 35 mintes - bear in mind, this isn't 35 minutes of constant use, but 35 minutes of being on. it is on its way back to Amazon, and I'll stick with my Fuji. What a stupid and idiotic product; what in God's name does someone like Kyocera think when they market this? Don't they use it? Don't they test it? And the 16mb card it comes with - 9 pictures? Plus, there's no lens cap, so about every 4th time you reach into your pocket to get it out your fingers hit the lens. This ia huge marketing gaffe and is pretty amazing for a japanese company, so revered for their "human" engineering.
PIctures, functionality, size, etc. were all excellent, so this camera is a really sad indictment of how fundamental functions of a camera can completely destroy its value.