Home > Consumer Reviews > Kyocera SL300R 3.17MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

Well, my wife rarely buys me gifts, but she could hardly contain her enthusiasm when she presented me with this gorgeous little camera for no reason. I've had 3 digitals- an original Sony Mavica, a Toshiba, and currently a Fuji Finepix 6800Z. I was really taken by the small size and function of this little beauty, but I was a little worried when there was no mention anywhere - on line, in the owners manual - of battery life. Well, for good reason. The lithium ion battery, fully charged, only gave me 35 minutes of life. I used it as I would if I were on a trip - snapping away, about 30 pictures, a few rapid sequence pictures, and a short movie. I kept the LCD display on dim, and didn't pre or post view the images, to keep battery use down. I was incredibly disappointed when the battery dipped into the low range after 35 mintes - bear in mind, this isn't 35 minutes of constant use, but 35 minutes of being on. it is on its way back to Amazon, and I'll stick with my Fuji. What a stupid and idiotic product; what in God's name does someone like Kyocera think when they market this? Don't they use it? Don't they test it? And the 16mb card it comes with - 9 pictures? Plus, there's no lens cap, so about every 4th time you reach into your pocket to get it out your fingers hit the lens. This ia huge marketing gaffe and is pretty amazing for a japanese company, so revered for their "human" engineering.
PIctures, functionality, size, etc. were all excellent, so this camera is a really sad indictment of how fundamental functions of a camera can completely destroy its value.

They Kyocera SL300R is not trying to be all things to all photographers. Rather, it's a carry-anywhere snapshot-taker with good quality and some outstanding features. I own one, and after a busy Christmas I can attest to its excellent performance. Its brief "warm-up" time and ability to take shots in rapid succession are revolutionary for a small digital camera. Its form factor is superb, and its design is worthy of display at MOMA. To compensate for the dinky 16MB supplied card and short battery life, I've ordered a 256MB memory card ($80) and an additional battery. Problem solved!

It's fast, small and cool-looking. My husband has a high end digital camera that I like but this one is much faster and also takes good pictures. Digital cameras are improving!

Yeah, it does eat battery power, but only if you keep it turned on. I've only had it for a few weeks but have taken it to four gatherings and on a ski trip with no problems except for one time when I let my nephew play with it for a half hour without turning it off. I've already got in the habit of recharging it the evening after I use it so it's ready for next time.

I'm only so-so when it comes to understanding how to use high tech stuff, but I was able to figure out the features of this camera pretty easily. Except for the red-eye reduction. It took me a bit of manual study to figure out how to turn it on. (Push the arrow up.)

I love the design, too, and so far I love the pictures. And it's just incredibly nice to carry around and pull out and snap pictures with. Makes me giddy.

This is the 5th digital camera I have experience with... 2 Canon PowerShots, the Archos AVCam attachment for an AV3x0 and some piece of junk I borrowed. The only significant fault I can find with this camera is that the glass lens cover is exposed and for the first few times I used it I kept getting my fingerprints on it - get over it... Sure it comes with a small SD card and you need to get a bigger one (I got a 256MB one to replace the obviously inadequate 16MB one it comes with). So what? Look at other digital cameras - same thing. Battery life seems GREAT to me. Sure if you are a moron and just turn it on and leave it on allowing it to auto-focus on everything you will run the battery down quickly - duh. The most fabulous feature of this camera is that it boots amazingly quickly. Turn it off after you take a picture and turn it back on when you want to take another - common sense... Perfect size, very intuitive controls, great picture and movie quality, ultra fast boot and the rapid shot feature is great. I am a picky early adopter gadget freak and this device is awesome! I have a Kyocera Palm phone device (my 3rd Palm/cell phone combo after a Samsung and a TREO) and both of these Kyocera devices are great!

Love this camera! Wonderful size. Great pictures. Movie mode was really impressive. Awefully short on battery life when using the LCD Backlight so consider a second battery. I've been wanting to get a digital camera for some time but was completely unable to deal with the lag between pushing the shutter button and getting the picture. I originally bought this camera because it was billed as having no material lag. I can tell you it has lived up to its billing.

I took it with me on a business trip and it fit in my suit pocket with less bulk than my Palm. When I took it out to use it everyone wanted to check it out (an added bonus). In fact someone else on the trip liked it so much they bought one as soon as they got back.

I am a gadget lover, a shutter bug, and a mobile kind of guy who doesn't have a lot of pockets for carrying stuff. This camera pushes all of my buttons.