Home > Consumer Reviews > Kyocera Finecam S3L Digital Camera [3MP 3xOptical]

After spending ages shopping around the high street and internet for our first digital camera I settled on the Kyocera Finecam S3L. Amazon provided by far the most competitive price (and latterly swift delivery). I wanted a 3 mega pixel capacity, but didn't want some of the bulkier, brick-like models on the market. We also needed a video facility. First impressions - excellent. We were up and running in about ten minutes, taking stills, video and e-mailing material. Connection to our iMac was simple and downloading effortless. Instructions: easy to follow. Picture quality is as good as our old Canon 35mm. Size and weight are great pluses, and the build quality is awesome - stainless steel all round. Possible negative point: in bright sun the LCD display was difficult to see without shading, but not worth grumbling about really. Battery life: we heard some horror stories about Kyocera battery life, but the S3L let us have a busy day of stills and videoing (with constant playback for kids) and the battery lasted well. Overall, very pleased with it and would definently recommend the Finecam S3L!

At this price there are not many cameras with this specification, there are even fewer that work on an Apple computer (iPhoto).
I have owned this camera for 2 weeks now and I have found it to be an absolute gem easy to use interface and an excellent manual and good image quality are what you would expect when spending this amount of money. Then throw in a seemless integration with iPhoto 2 using OS 10.2 on a mac and the fact that it was £20 cheaper than another website that claimed it was the cheapest supplier on the internet, and you find your self with a very tidy little package.
This is my second digital camera I prefer not to talk about the first as I spent alot of money for what has turned out to be very little, I swore that I would never buy another digital camera, but 2years on an one Finecam SL3 later I'm cured, at this price level you can't much do better

At first this camera seems great and it is but only at certain things. Its good at macros and close ups and well lit situations producing often very sharp images. However in low light it is very poor, producing images with very little contrast. Landscape shots and alike are also not very good often appearing very soft. Also the mechanics in it failed. Kyocera refused to repair until a very threatening letter about telling the camera magazines about their customer services was sent. The warranty was made void by this and since it has been returned the battery, which hardly had good life to beging with, has now seemingly given up the ghost only lasting for very short period of time. Very disapointing.

I had my S3L for about 7 months before returning it.

I had problems with the screen going weird and the battery life was terrible.

I now own a Pentax Optio S4. Far superior product.