When you get under the cover, some of these digicams can seem rather generic (to whit: Samsung's just-announced U-CA3), with features fairly common amongst entry-level cameras. The Kyocera Finecam SL300R "Stream Shot" is a little more interesting, though. For one thing, the swivel-body - very reminiscent of Nikon's Coolpix SQ - is extremely small (Kyocera says it is the thinnest optical-zoom equipped digicam as of August 1st 2003). Probably the most obvious cameras to compare it to are the aforementioned Coolpix SQ and Minolta's DiMAGE X-series. The DiMAGE Xt has dimensions of 97 x 67 x 23mm, and the Coolpix SQ is 82 x 82 x 26mm - the SL300R is just a touch wider than both cameras but noticeably shorter and slimmer, at 100 x 62.5 x 15mm.

Equally significant are the specifications... At first glance the combination of a 3 megapixel imager and 3x optical zoom lens seems fairly average, but according to Kyocera this camera is *fast*, as you might have guessed from the "Stream Shot" name. The company says that the SL300R has the world's fastest "full memory" burst mode, meaning a burst mode that is not limited by buffer size, but by available flash memory. When using high-speed Secure Digital cards (10MB / second or higher), the camera can capture a whopping 3.5 frames per second for the entire capacity of the flash card!

Kyocera will sell the Finecam SL300R from the last third of September in Japan, with pricing not yet announced. Monthly production is set at 50,000 units, with three body colors being available initially (Silver, Light Blue and Red). Six further colors will be available in time-limited editions - Green, Orange, Pink, Yellow, Blue and Charcoal. We're not currently aware of any plans for sale outside of Japan...

Specifications translated from the Japanese announcement follow below:

Kyocera Finecam SL300R "Stream Shot"
Type	Digital still camera with record and playback / delete functions
Recording Media / Type	SD Memory card / MultiMediaCard DCF compliant (Exif ver2.2) JPEG compliant DPOF capable
Number of Effective Pixels	3,170,000 pixels
Image Sensor	1/2.7"-type square pixel primary color filter interlaced read-out CCD 3,340,000 total pixels
Record Pixels (Still Image)	2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, 640 x 480
Image Quality	Two settings of F (Fine) and N (Normal)
Record Pixels (Animation)	640 x 480, 320 x 240, 160 x 120
Animation Frame Rate	15 and 30 frames / second
Lens	Kyocera 3x optical zoom lens 7 elements in 6 groups 5.8 - 17.4mm, F2.8 - 4.7 Equivalent to 38 - 115mm on a 35mm camera
Digital Zoom	x1.3, x1.6, x2.0
Focus Adjustment	Video feedback-type autofocus (wide / spot AF selection and manual focus possible)
Focusing Range	Normal: 60cm - infinity Macro: 20 - 60cm Measured from front of lens
Exposure Control	Program AE, Aperture Priority AE
Metering System	Measured by CCD 3 modes: Multi-area evaluative, Center-weighted, Spot
Automatic Exposure Range	LV6 - LV16
Exposure Compensation	+2.0EV to -2.0EV (1/3EV steps)
Aperture	F2.8 and F7.5, automatic
Shutter	CCD electronic and iris aperture mechanical combined shutter 1 - 1/2000, 2, 4 or 8 seconds
White Balance	Automatic, Manual (Sunlight, Incandescent, Cloudy, Fluorecent, Preset)
Color Mode	Color, Black & White, Sepia
Sharpness	+3 to -1 (5 steps)
Saturation	+, Standard, - (3 steps)
Sensitivity	Auto, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400 and ISO 800
LCD Monitor	1.5" 118,000 pixel combined transmissive / reflective "DayFine" LCD display LCD brightness adjustment possible
Flash	Built-in type Range: Approx. 60cm - 2.5m (wide), approx. 60cm - 1.8m (tele)
Flash Modes	Automatic, Red-Eye Reduction Automatic, Forced, Off, Red-Eye Reduction Forced
Scene Modes	Standard, Sports, Portrait, Night, Night Portrait, Macro, Landscape
Animation Record Mode	File Format: AVI Sound Recording: Selectable
Animation Record Time	To capacity of memory card (when using high-speed SD Memory cards with minimum transfer speed of 10MB/second) Computer Playback: QuickTime 4.1 or higher (Windows or Macintosh)
Continuous Mode	Approx. 3.5 frames per second When using high-speed SD Memory cards with minimum transfer speed of 10MB/second, burst depth is limited only by card capacity (performance depends on camera settings, photography conditions and memory card)
Audio Annotation	30 seconds per image
Playback Modes	Multiple image display (6 images), single image display and audio annotation (audio memo attached to still image), protection and deletion (single image / all images), rotation (left and right, 90 degrees), slide show, resize, DPOF setting, playback zoom, thumbnail playback, animation playback (animations recorded with SL300R only), information display
Setup Function	AF mode (Single AF, Continuous AF), LCD brightness adjustment, backlight adjustment, date setup, timestamp, auto power-off setup, mode lock, shutter / operation sound setup, language selection (Japanese, English, German, French, Chinese, Spanish), file number reset, settings reset, menu color, startup picture selection, playback review
Input / Output Terminals	External power supply, USB (mini-B)
Power Supply	3.7V Lithium Ion Battery 780 mAh Proprietary AC adapter
Size	(Width) 100 x (height) 62.5 x (depth) 15mm (excluding projections)
Weight	About 125g (including battery and record media)
Operation Temperature	0 - 45 degrees C (non-condensing)
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