Kyocera Finecam S5 Review

The Finecam S5 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 S5 has both an optical real image viewfinder and a high-resolution 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 1.6-inch 85,000 pixel TFT color LCD has a resolution of 354x240 and can be used for preview, review and setting menu options. Controls across the top: Mode Dial (Setup, Play, Record and Movie) and the zoom lens controls.

The 4-way selector is used to navigate menus, select images for playback, choose flash modes and macro or landscape settings. 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 (not shown).

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 and we tested it with a 256MB card.

The camera is powered by a proprietary BP-1000S rechargeable 3.6V 1000mAh lithium battery pack. It's about the same width and length as a stick of chewing gum and runs the entire length of the camera. The battery is charged in-camera. Kyocera includes an AC adapter/charger that requires approx. five hours to recharge a fully depleted pack.

A fully charged battery will yield approx. 160 pictures with the LCD monitor ON and approx. 200 pictures with the LCD monitor OFF. The continuous playback time is about 180 minutes