Kyocera Finecam S4 Review

Features & Controls

The Finecam S4 is equipped with an all-glass 3x optical zoom lens, f=7.3 mm - 21.9 mm (35mm equivalent 35mm - 105mm), F2.8-4.8. The focusing range in normal mode is about 60cm to infinity and in Macro mode from about 17cm - 60cm (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.

To help you get the best possible battery life the S4 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 automatically pops up when the camera is powered on and closes when it is turned off. It has a recycle time of about 8 seconds (on full battery charge), and a working range from about 60cm to 2.5 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 top is the Power on/off button and the shutter release.

On the side are the USB, 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.

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.

The camera is powered by a proprietary BP-90S rechargeable 3.6V 900mAh lithium battery pack that runs the entire length of the body of the camera. The battery is charged in-camera. Kyocera includes an AC adapter/charger that requires five hours to recharge a fully depleted pack.