To
date, few others can boast of packing a 3.3 megapixel CCD in such a tiny
camera. The Kyocera Finecam S3 is elegant looking, and remarkably portable.
Yet, the most important aspect of any camera, more than its size and looks,
has to be the quality of the image it produces. In this respect, our impression
of the Finecam S3 is a bit mixed, simply by the fact that while some photos
turned out very well, others didn't turn out quite as well; and the source
of these variations seemed to be the lens itself.
Aperture:
f 2.8, shutter speed: 1 sec, manual focus at infinity.
We noted that the camera
copes fairly well at 200 ISO, a setting often used indoors, and captures
images that contain only a marginal increase in noise. However, when pushed
to its maximum of 400 ISO, the quality degrades quite noticeably.
The Finecam S3 is at its best when used for portraits and nearby subjects.
Its images often have a slightly soft focus that can be quite flattering
for portraits and yet sharp enough for medium distance subjects.
Aperture:
f 3.2, shutter speed: 1/300 sec.
Yet, the same softness of focus that can work well with portraits becomes
detracting from more distant subjects such as scenery. Here, the Finecam
S3's image becomes less detailed when compared with those of other 3.3
megapixel cameras. In this situation, the images are more in line with
those of lower resolution cameras.
The Finecam S3 offers a choice of metering, ranging from an evaluative
system which takes various points of the scene into account, to centre-weighted,
or spot. In general, the evaluative metering produced the better results.
Testing
the TIFF format of the camera yielded some unusual results. TIFF format
photos were noticeably under saturated when compared to those recorded
in JPEG format. Without exception, all photos taken in TIFF required increasing
the saturation with software.
But, as 1 TIFF image requires a lengthy 1 minute and 15 seconds to store
on the MultiMedia card, the point may be moot as it is unlikely most users
will bother with it.
Two
photos taken of the same subject, using a tripod, are combined into
one. The top half is captured using the TIFF format, the lower half
using JPEG. (Both photos: f2.8, 1/90 sec.)
Unrelated
to the camera's imaging capabilities but a bit unsettling, were two concerns:
the camera's short battery life which impedes its use; and that the camera
had a tendency to become quite hot to the touch after a relatively short
period of use (5 min). If, at least with this camera, the heat did not
seem to cause errors in the electronics, the short battery life proved
more of a problem as it limited the camera's autonomy.
The Kyocera Finecam S3 can be used for snapshots of friends and relatives,
when it will produce very acceptable photos. However, its limitations
will start to show when its imaging capability is put to more demanding
tasks, such as travel photos or other subjects that require greater precision
than its lens can yield. This may very well be the trade-off necessary
to benefit from the advantage of its diminutive size.
