Kyocera Finecam S3 Review

Features & Controls

The Finecam S3 is equipped with an all-glass 2x optical zoom lens, f=7.8 mm - 15.6 mm (35mm equivalent 38mm - 76mm), F2.8-3.5. The focusing range in normal mode is about 90cm to infinity and in Macro mode from about 10cm - 90cm (at wide-angle setting).

As you can see from the pictures, no lens cap is required as the lens retracts back into the body when powered down and is protected by a built in shield.

The lens extends a good ways out from the camera during operation. It takes about five seconds to be ready when powered up, most of that time is for the lens movement.

To help you get the best possible battery life the S3 has both an optical real image viewfinder as well as the color LCD. The color LCD should be used when in Macro mode to avoid parallax problems.

The built-in flash has a recycle time of about 6 seconds (on full battery charge), and a working range from about 90cm to 2 meters. User selectable modes are auto flash, red-eye reduction, forced flash, no flash, red-eye reduction forced flash in long exposure modes.

The 1.5-inch 110,000 pixel polysilicon TFT color LCD has a resolution of 521x218 and can be used for preview, review and setting menu options. Controls across the top; macro / landscape focus, flash mode, Mode Dial (Setup, Play, Record) and the zoom lens controls.

The 4-way selector is used to navigate menus and select images for playback. The center button accepts selections. Below the LCD is the DISPLAY button to turn the LCD on or off and the MENU button to call up the menu screens.

On the side are the Video Out and DC IN ports. The video out signal is user selectable for either NTSC or PAL format. The battery charger / AC power supply plugs into the DC IN port. There is no builtin USB port, the camera comes with an external USB card reader (see below.)

Images and movies are stored on tiny MMC (MultiMedia) cards or SD (Secure Digital) cards. These cards are barely larger than a postage stamp!  Kyocera supplies a 16MB card with the camera.

Kyocera also supplies this nifty little MMC/SD USB card reader. It is identical to the MicroTech ZIO! reader and can be plugged directly into the USB port on a laptop or for a desktop you can use the supplied extension cable.

The camera is powered by a proprietary rechargeable lithium battery pack that runs the entire length of the body of the camera. The battery is charged in-camera.

Thankfully it's a lightweight camera, check out the incredibly poor location of the tripod socket.