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camara digital kyocera SL 400



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 12th 04, 08:16 PM
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Default camara digital kyocera SL 400

I am interested in buying the camera SL. 400R of Kyocera of 4 mp
he/she wanted that somebody commented me or it recommended something
on this model.

thank you
  #2  
Old December 13th 04, 10:57 AM
Robert Klemme
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schrieb im Newsbeitrag
om...
I am interested in buying the camera SL. 400R of Kyocera of 4 mp
he/she wanted that somebody commented me or it recommended something
on this model.


I love it because it's very handy. But you should be aware of downsides
especially shooting in bad lighting conditions will more often than not
yield unsatisfactory results because of the missing AF assist light and
the meek flash. But otherwise it's great: picture quality is ok and it's
really fast.

Btw, you might even consider to buy the SL 300 R - you just loose 1MP but
gain a bit of speed and #pics that fit on the memory card. Plus it's a
bit cheaper.

Kind regards

robert

  #3  
Old December 13th 04, 06:02 PM
Wolfgang Weisselberg
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Robert Klemme wrote:
schrieb im Newsbeitrag


[SL. 400R of Kyocera of 4 mp]

I love it because it's very handy. But you should be aware of downsides
especially shooting in bad lighting conditions will more often than not
yield unsatisfactory results because of the missing AF assist light and
the meek flash. But otherwise it's great: picture quality is ok and it's
really fast.


Btw, you might even consider to buy the SL 300 R - you just loose 1MP but
gain a bit of speed and #pics that fit on the memory card. Plus it's a
bit cheaper.


I have (and always wear) the Contax SL300RT* (that's the
deluxe variant of Kyocera FinePix: it has a Zeiss
Vario-Tessar T* and looks better (mine's all black, white
letters, brushed metal buttons and real leather on the
underside) but I understand it it otherwise identical to the
SL300R.

Cons:
- small battery. You'll want a second battery. (Proprietary LiIon
Battery, did cost me ca. EUR 50)
- The screen is not the largest one around.
- It's 3.2 MPixel.
- Needs LIGHT for AF. No AF help light. EV 6 (LV6 @ISO100, LV5
@ISO200, LV3 @ISO800) works usually according to a very quick
test. So AF about usable in normal lit homes at night @ISO200,
(wide angle = f/2.8, 1/8s, so you'll want flash), but for
darker places you cannot AF even to use flash.
- No zooming in Macro mode, no manual focus in Macro mode.
- You can select 0.6m, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 5, oo in manual focus only.
Using the display to check is not feasable, you'd have to shoot
a photo, switch to display mode and zoom 8x (the max amount)
into it. Guess the distance is the game.
- minimum distance ca 60cm, 20 with macro.
- cannot screw on tripod/monopod (no screw nut)
- display gets quite warm within a few minutes w/backlight even
on dim.
- the usual restrictions re Video (no sound or no optical zoom,
etc.)
- not the fastest camera in switching on, getting focus, saving
a single photo
- ISO 800 has noise, and lots. It's no accident that the program
stays at ISO 100 (perfect) and ISO 200 (good). Usable in some
situations, though.
- no fallback 'fixed focus' mode except manual focus.
- Until you get used to it, you will leave fingerprints on
the lens. The T* comes with a leather belt purse for it,
which works well for me, including in this regard.
- This being a point&shoot you can just say 'AE Program', 'Prefer
short time' ('AE F2.8' --- actually 4.7 in max zoom) or 'Prefer
closed shutter' ('AE F7.5' -- actually 12 in max zoom).
- no preview of ISO, Shutter, aperture selected by the camera.
Make a shot, then check with down-up press. You just get a
blinking warning LED if the camera thinks the time might be long.
- the flash isn't much, you don't get a hotshoe, either.
- The menues are not ordered the way I would have done it, but
maybe my usage is atypical ...
- You'll have to find a way to handle _many_ images, if you ---
like me --- almost exclusively use the series mode. Try for
3-5 images in a row, unless you record action, and select
the best picture (which is harder with 20 or 50 images :-).
- if it's dark you'll not see too much on the display. It's enough
to compose a shot, but it would have been better if it had
some --- even very noisy --- 'night sight' amplifier mode
for composing. (Some cameras have that for good effect.)


Pro:
- The battery may be enough if you use no flash and do series
shots mostly.
Using ISO 100 B/W mode, no flash, usually series shots, not
reviewing a lot, backlight 'dim', all sounds off, Single Shot
AF, I managed to record ca. 900 images (full size, fine mode)
on one 512 SD card with just one battery charge. I still had
use for my 2nd battery.
- Display perfect even with 'dim' backlight setting.
- Display perfect even in full sunlight.
- 3.5 images/s, till your memory card fills up. (You want a _fast_
card. A SanDisk UltraII 512MB SD card is fine here. With slow
cards you only get maybe 4 or 5 images till the buffer fills up.)
- up to 640x480 @ 30fps video till your memory card fills up.
- will give you jpgs with low file size on ISO 100, since they
have little noise --- but this relativates itself at ISO 200, or
with an old quarrystone wall or similar hard-to-compress images.
- I often don't even twist the optical part, but press the
camera against my breast, look on the display and shoot away.
This is more stable than the usual 'half-stretched arms' and
less obvious, too.
- You can manually set 2,4,8 s long exposure. Due to the twist
design you can put the camera on any flat surface and use the
timer to long-exposure dim objects. Still a mini-tripod is
more versatile (rough, scratching surfaces, or push a camera
with mini-tripod against a wall --- yes, I've done that with
another camera for 'flash + up to 4 seconds' night portrait
mode for good effect on a dancing crowd, ...)
- The twist design is a god-send if you want a low or an overhead
shot --- beware of being more shaky than the 'press to breast'
mode. :-)
You'll really miss it if you want a 'portrait' instead of
'landscape' image orientation.
- Once the AF gets focus (and the object does not change it's
distance) you get really sharp pictures.
- You can add 28mm filters (by changing the tiny stray light hood
against the filter holder --- maybe only with the T*?)
- you can use the 'series' mode as a poor man's IS. I have made
quite a few usable photographs even with 1/2s or 1s, given some
way to hold the camera steady and being prepared of throwing
away 80-90% due to camera shake or subject movement.



I personally love this small camera. It's capable of very
sharp shoots, weights little and can be carried and used
very unobstrusively. The quiet 'clackclackclackclack' of the
(mechanical) shutter taking 3.5 images/s is, ah! Assuming enough
light you get fine images. Black metal and black leather looks
good and there is no 'plastic' or 'cheap' feel here (again,
this is probably only in the CONTAX T*).

I have not noticed flaring or ghosting --- but I have not looked
for it explicitely. You will see sometimes a vertical light
spike in the viewer in high contrast situation, but it'll not
be in the image recorded. I don't know about the behaviour in
video mode there, though.

Don't expect a good darkness performance, however.

Without flash, with "wide"-angle (f/2.8) you'll probably want
1/30s, so you'll need EV8, so you'll be able to get images shortly
after sundown, very bight store windows or well-lit indor shows
or circuses. (I don't recommend ISO200 (thus LV7) for low noise
images, but if you go all-out you can probably get LV5: average
lit homes, auditoriums etc at "wide"-angle (f/2.8) @ 1/30s).

With flash you'll soon run into the limited power of the inbuild
unit. Don't expect more than 3 meters of light. So you'll
find you have a well-lit group of 4 or 6 people with rather
flat faces and red eyes from the straight-on flash (yes, there
is an 'anti-redeye' setting) but a background drowned in dark.
Additionally the flash will drain the limited battery that much
faster. You can slave flashes that use the flashes' light to sync,
but that will not work when other photographers are around.


However, if you keep these restrictions in mind and use it
mostly as a 'very bright interiors' and 'outside/daylight'
camera, you'll come to love the series mode, the size, etc.
I never realized the power of being able to take _many_ pictures
in a row and choosing the best one, now I'd not buy a camera that
doesn't support this feature.

Questions?
Remarks?

-Wolfgang
  #4  
Old December 14th 04, 09:37 AM
Robert Klemme
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"Wolfgang Weisselberg" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...

snip/

Questions?


What can we add to such a thorough evaluation? :-)

I totally agree with all that you say - apart from that I thik like the
pure metal body of my SL400R more than the black one of yours. But that's
a different story...

Kind regards

robert

 




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