Kyocera Finecam SL300R Review

The swivel lens/flash unit rotates 120° forward and 120° backward, enabling easy framing of any subject from high overhead to low angle. You can rotate the lens backwards for quick and easy self-portraits, just frame yourself on the LCD and press the shutter.

The 3x zoom 5.8 - 17.4mm lens has a maximum aperture of F2.8-4.8 and a focal coverage of approximately 38mm to 115mm for 35mm format cameras. The lens combines compact size and high performance through the use of special low-dispersion glass with four aspheric lenses.

The Finecam SL300R offers continuous AF that allows the user to seize the moment. The focusing range in normal mode is about 60cm to infinity and in Macro mode from about 17cm - 60cm (at wide-angle setting).

The flash unit has a coverage of approx. 0.6 ~ 2.5m (wide angle) and about 0.6 ~ 2m (telephoto). The flash has modes for Auto, Red-eye reduction, Fill, Flash off and Night scene.

The 1.5-inch DayFine TFT color LCD monitor is used for framing, review, menus and camera status, it has adjustable brightness. Controls across the top: Display button controls the information displayed on the LCD. The Scene button gives you quick access to the pre-programmed scene modes (Standard, Sports, Night, Night Portrait, Macro, Landscape). Upper right is the zoom lens control buttons. Rather than a mode dial the SL300R uses two buttons and a 5-position illuminated display bar (Setup, Play, Record, Burst Record, Movie).

The 4-way selector is used to navigate menus and select images for playback. The center button accepts selections. The MENU button calls up the menu screens. Press the 4-way "Up" to change Flash modes.

On top is the Power on/off button and the shutter release.

On the side are the USB and DC IN ports. There is no video out capability. The battery charger / AC power supply plugs into the DC IN port.

Images and movies are stored on tiny 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. Note that MMC type cards are not recommended because of their slow data read/write speeds.

The camera is powered by a proprietary BP-780S rechargeable 3.7V 780mAh lithium battery pack. This is a very slim battery and is charged in-camera. Kyocera includes an AC adapter/charger that requires approx. 180 minutes to recharge a fully depleted pack.