Kyocera Finecam S3 / Yashica Finecam S3

Opinion: I've used this camera for about a year now. It is an incredibly small camera - sometimes almost too small because you have to be very careful not to produce shaky images in low-light-situations: the shutter button should be pressed carefully. One other thing one should be aware of is the delay between the shutter button being pressed and the actual image being taken. When given to strangers the camera tends to produce shaky images because the delay is unexpected. This is not an issue with my newer camera, the Minolta F200 -> see review.
Images come out quite well, they do have a little 'fake' touch at times when it comes to skin and lip tones.
Be sure to get a spare battery!

Opinion: Absolute fantastic camera!!!

Opinion: I like this camera a lot. However, it had an Achille's Heel –
the whole camera is very sturdy and strong – however, the
battery compartment is made of plastic and has not proven
as good of a design idea as the camera on whole. My
camera has gone to the shop twice from a defective battery
compartment. Yes, I dropped it both times - what good is a
solid steel camera if the corner of it is made of soft plastic?

OTHERWISE - and a very important, "otherwise", the camera
is great. I use it MOSTLY of rnighttime shots and I find that
like ALL LONG EXPOSURE photography, a tripod should be
used. With one, the results are excellent. I love night
photography and this camera takes wonderful shots. There
are two small tripods I would recommend:

• Sony's tiny 'deck o' card-sized' one that ALSO slipd in your
pocket. Made of plastic, small and light weight. Once
mounted, this one lets you position the camera in many
direction up and down and is very compact. But it doesn't
have a swivle head to get EVERYTHING.

• I have another one that is completely metal and is basically
a traditional tripod with VERY SMALL legs. the whole thig
compacts up into a 'gun' like package to take it on the go. I
use this one the most, but, unfortunately, I can't find a logo to
say who makes it..

Opinion: I bought it about a year ago (02/02).
Shot about 600 pictures in that year.

Construction:
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The case is a good quality, very robust (metal!), and extremely well styled one.
Somehow the TFT display is erroneous, that's why the cam is in service right now, that is the only reason I didn't give it a 5.

The camera has the exact size of a pack of cigarettes - which makes it just as portable as that and a lot better for your health.

The case gets warm if the camera is turned on for a while, but that doesn't matter to me, as long as it doesn't harm the cam or burn me which it doesn't.

Features:
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The medium used (SD/MM cards) is easy to handle, available in reasonable sizes (though i only have 64 MB at max, I'm not quite sure how large the cards can be), and by now not very expensive.

The SD/MM card reader that comes with the camera works well and is a lot better than a direct USB connection, since it is a passive element (independant of the weak battery). It works under WinXP / Linux out of the box (/dev/sda on linux ;)).

The video function will be used 3-4 times per camera I guess, quality is very low and is has no sound. Nice for a short clip to post on a web site, else useless. But if you want movies, don't buy a still camera and vice versa :).

Looking at today's cams the feature set isn't that huge, but for its generation is is very good. That makes 4 stars for features as of 2003.

Image Quality:
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Outdoor shots with a steady hand or bright sunlight are very nice.
Indoor shots with flash are blurry most of the time.

I have done some night (!) shots with 2 or 4 seconds automatic shutter with the camera on the ground, a wall or a table, which are amazingly clear and colorful.

Over all the camera tends to blur in my opininion. Maybe it is because of the dark time of the year we have now, but I suspect the blurring got worse over time. If the focus is ok, the picture is of very good quality.

All those blurry shots make the image quality average, looking at the whole of the 600 pictures I shot.

Ease of use:
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The battery is very weak, but I don't mind. I turn off the camera right after each shot and use the PC to view the pictures, not the display, never had any major problems with not being able to take photos or so.

Starting up the camera for a snapshot takes about 6 seconds, so most of the time a spontaneous snapshot is very hard to achieve.

Saving a picture on the MM card I use takes for ever (4-5 seconds) but I don't know about the performance using a newer SD card.

Looking at the real EASE of use I could say - any dog could do a shot with it. Turn it on, press the trigger - done.

Value for money:
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Looking at today's prices ranging around $400 this camera is an excellent choice, though today I would buy a 4 or 5 megapixel camera.

Conclusion:
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I would buy the camera again at the time I bought it -- looking at prices today keeps it attractive.
The only thing I miss is an underwater case like Canon has it for its Digital Ixus.

Opinion: If you take the camera for what it is, the S3 is an excellent choice. The camera is incredibly small and light. Great for a day trip. Daytime shots are all pretty much spot on. I like the MMC card USB interface that came with the camera (mounts the MMC card like a floppy drive). I picked mine up new for USD $275 from an auction site. Great value for that price.

Opinion: I brough it 6 months ago in China with one 64M MMC card free, the total package is 480USD (now S4 only 470USD), And i like it very small easy to use, and just like others, whrn I began to use , most of the pictures are burl and I found the it is too samll and light and when you press the button you must hold it hard, and the quality of the picture is just so so, I read the review carefully and I agree, but as a pocket DC, this is OK.

Opinion: Got this camera to support an Oly e-10. Beast to lug arround. The Kyocera slips into a pocket. Fair enough, the pics are not in the same leauge, but neither was the price, over twice the cost.

I can always seem to slip the kyocera into a pocket, but getting out the Oly is MUCH more a chore.

Don't really need to do any PhotoShop work for OK point and shoot quality, and that is just what I need from this camera.

Really small, and almost always with me. Great in that respect. Based on the reviews here, I thought the pictures would be poor, but really outshoots the Fuji it replaces.

Opinion: I have been thrilled by this camera! The build quality is exceptional. Minor Photoshop adjustments (USM and Contrast) result in excellent images.

I have found that the camera functions well as a fixed-focus camera in sunny situations. I set the manual focus to near infinity. The camera is very fast in this mode and most images come out perfect.

A spare battery fixes the battery life issue.

Opinion: This is really an excellent bit of kit. Goes everywhere with me. Just bought a spare battery and recently obtained a 12Vdc to 5Vdc converter so I can recharge it in the car. Also, pleased to note that MMC cards have come down in price so storage isn't a problem.