Rating: 
Summary: Value for Money
Review: Size is the major advantage of this camera but it has 3 major problems: 1) battery is not powerful enough that it cannot last for a whole day; a spare battery is a MUST; 2) Flash photo is very bad (& drains your already weak battery) making over-exposure unavoidable; 3) Auto focus is slow, particularly in dim environment. Other than these, this small camera is packed with a lot of useful functions such as ISO adjustment, manual white balance, manual focus, aperature adjustment and the even digital zoom is very good (compared to other digital cameras whose digital zoom are nearly useless given their poor quality). Finally, in HK, this camera is sold at around US$385, making it one of the cheapest 3m pixel digital cameras in the market.
Rating:
Summary: Value for Money
Review: Size is the major advantage of this camera but it has 3 major problems: 1) battery is not powerful enough that it cannot last for a whole day; a spare battery is a MUST; 2) Flash photo is very bad (& drains your already weak battery) making over-exposure unavoidable; 3) Auto focus is slow, particularly in dim environment. Other than these, this small camera is packed with a lot of useful functions such as ISO adjustment, manual white balance, manual focus, aperature adjustment and the even digital zoom is very good (compared to other digital cameras whose digital zoom are nearly useless given their poor quality). Finally, in HK, this camera is sold at around US$385, making it one of the cheapest 3m pixel digital cameras in the market.
Rating: 
Summary: Some flaws, but you'll take it everywhere and get good pics
Review: The Kyocera/Yashica Finecam S3 is the same camera as the Konica Digital Revio KD-300Z, with a slightly different look to the front panel. It's a great little camera. You could, if you wanted, complain about some of its limitations -- yes, it's slow, the zoom is only 2x, focus is a bit soft, the range of resolutions is more limited than it should be, battery life is terrible, the camera body gets hot, the lens motor is a tad noisy, movies have no sound, the LCD always comes on after power-up (even if you turned it off previously), and the flash is weak. But so what? The Finecam S3 is the only 3 megapixel camera I know that's small enough and solid enough for me to carry all the time. It's smaller than my cellular phone and fits in the tiny breast pocket of my microfibre cycling vest. It offers a remarkable range of manual controls -- from aperture to ISO sensitivity to white balance to focus. Moving from photo to photo in View mode is faster than on any other camera I've ever used. The build quality is outstanding. It remembers most settings when you turn it off, which some other cameras don't. It's usable by a rank amateur, but if you know what you're doing you can take very good pictures using the manual settings. It has a raw TIFF mode, a decent optical viewfinder, very close macro focusing (6 cm), an all-metal body, and an above-average package bundle that includes a 16 MB MMC storage chip, a USB card reader and extension cable, a soft leatherette pouch, a video-out cable, and power cords for both 120 V and 240 V standard outlets. The controls are logical and surprisingly usable (despite their tinyness) after a quick read through the thorough manual. Newer versions of the Mac OS and Windows recognize the SD card reader without new drivers. Most important, you'll take the camera with you when you'd leave even a Nikon CoolPix 775 behind. Its only competitors are the Canon Digital ELPH/IXUS models, but they are 2 megapixel cameras without as much manual control, and maybe the larger and more expensive Fuji FinePix F601. The price has come down too, since the design is now a year old, and it is an excellent deal. Grab a spare battery and a 128 MB SD card, and you're set. Or buy a 3 megapixel camera that's faster and takes better pictures -- then leave it behind for that perfect shot because it's too lumpy to carry. Your choice. If you want a tiny camera that's still capable, the Finecam is a good bet.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Specs!!! Do Not Believe Specs!!!!!
Review: This camera deserves a NEGATIVE 5 STAR RATING!!! I bought the Finecam S3 in good faith from Amazon when it first appeared. It was touted, rightfully so at the time, as the world’s smallest 3M Pixel camera with an optical zoom. I am such a tech fiend that the SD/MMC Card memory was also a turn on! I have invested over $100 in 2 replacement batteries. Guess what... they do not work as well as the original which presently will not hold a charge. I have always treated all my rechargeable batteries with utmost respect; recharging them when they are dead, avoiding temperature extremes, always having a spare… The facts are overwhelmingly against the purchase of this camera. I am so disgusted with my $500 investment (including the tripods, SD Cards, Card Reader, & Camera Case) that last night I threw my camera down the stairs for the second time. The d**n thing still works! The battery door is broken, but the battery never worked properly. One time I was able to take 125 pictures on my 256MB card before the battery died. I was so pleased with the results that I charged the battery for 2 days & took the camera with me on my hiking trip. I was able to take 3 pictures. The battery was dead!!! I have built my own external battery pack which works great, but defeats the objective of purchasing such a compact camera… the battery pack is as big as the camera. Now I can take 1000 pictures with 4 AA Alkaline Ray-o-Vac. I am shopping for a Canon Digital Elph. I could have bought one for half the price of my Kyocera, but I was “listening†to the specs. A good friend owns the very Canon Elph that I snubbed. We have performed blind A-B comparisons of the best pictures taken with the Elph & the Kyocera. The Kyocera images “might†be a little better. My friend’s Canon always works. She can let her battery sit in her camera for 2 weeks & power it up & take 100 pictures. She spent less than $200 on the entire package. She will not trade with me. I am shopping for an identical camera… it is discontinued. I’m now afraid to buy anything new. Did I mention that this Kyocera was my 4th digital camera? I am so disappointed. DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF JUNK.
Rating:
Summary: Worst camera ever?
Review: This is a terrible camera currently on my second one as first the camera would not stay on.
With the new one the battery life is measured in minutes. In dark settings its impossible , just takes ages to get a shot. Unacceptable delay in pressing shutter and image been taken. The movie mode is unreliable. I could go on.
What a waste of money
Geoff
Rating: 
Summary: Nice little camera
Review: This is the ideal camera for me. I was looking for a digital camera that was very small, so that lugging it around would not be a chore. I wanted a camera that was very easy to use, high-resolution, and under .... This camera fits the bill perfectly. Nice features: I like the storage medium --
It comes with a 16 MB MMC card; that's a little small, so I bought a 64 MB card as well. (It would be nice if you could select the card memory size as an option, so that you don't end up with an extra one you don't need...) To transfer pictures to the PC, you put the memory card into the provided USB card reader, and the pictures just show up as files in Windows Explorer. Couldn't be simpler. The controls are fairly intuitive to use --
There is a 3-setting switch to go between Set Up/Review Pictures/Take Pictures modes.
There are 2 buttons for zooming in/out.
When reviewing pictures, the zoom in button zooms in on the picture in the LCD window.
There's a button for macro/infinite/automatic focus.
There's a button for flash mode: off/on/auto/fill-in.
The Menu button gets you to other options. Pictures come out fine with the default settings --
There is some fine-tuning of the settings that you can do, but I have been completely satisfied with the image quality using the defaults. Caveats: Yes, the battery life is not spectacular. But then, in researching cameras, I have noticed that everyone complains about the battery life on every camera. I have found that if I just turn the camera off after each shot, the battery will last the duration of a typical outing. To recharge, you plug the camera into the charger; no need to remove the battery. The movie mode is not very useful. But then, I wanted a still camera, so I am not disappointed. My digital video camera takes lousy stills, too. The camera comes with this little "hand strap" you can attach, but I would've preferred a neck strap. I think the hand strap just makes it more likely that you'll whack the little thing into something. Much safer to just put it in its little bag and into your pocket. The camera by default remembers your previous settings when you turn the camera on again. This is usually what I want, but some people may find the alternate "restore default settings" mode to be better for them. I have made a few mistakes when the camera turned on in High Resolution mode, or with flash off, when that is not what I expected. In summary, this is a nifty little camera!
Rating:
Summary: Decent camera with one big problem
Review: Well I have owned this camera for a while now and I am somewhat pleased by it but I have run into a major problem which I have confirmed on other sites. The memory card does not always capture the image you think you got. In other words you take a picture and it does not wind up on the memory chip. Obviously this is a huge problem. This problem seems to happen more often when the batteries are low but the battery is so small that it is almost always low. Basically you have to keep checking to see if the picture is there. Not very good.
| 
