Contax SL300R T*

Reviewed by

David D. Busch

on 02/03/2005

Add to my list
Print
E-mail
Share

See all Kyocera products

CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
Detailed editors' rating
Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 6 reviews
See all user reviews

Email me when this product is available

Quick specs
Digital camera type: Ultracompact
Resolution: 3 megapixels
Optical zoom: 3 x
See full specifications

Add to my list Product summary

The good: Open-ended, high-speed burst mode with 3fps-to-4fps capture; simple automatic operation; ultracompact, luxurious leatherette-and-metal body.

The bad: Small, hard-to-use controls; no shutter-priority mode; no optical viewfinder.

The bottom line: This svelte snapshot camera's extended continuous-shooting ability sets a high performance standard, although its image quality is average.

Read full review

CNET editors' review

CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
Detailed editors' rating

Reviewed by:
David D. Busch
Edited by:
Aimee Baldridge
Reviewed on: 02/03/2005
Released on: 01/15/2004

The Contax logo and the leatherette panels on the SL300R T*'s body and the Carl Zeiss name applied to the lens may attract upscale buyers, but digital-camera aficionados will snap to attention over this 3-megapixel camera's high-speed burst mode. It can capture full-resolution photos at three to four frames per second for as long as the action, your memory card, and your trigger finger hold out. If you want to shoot a few hundred photos in less than 60 seconds with a pocket camera that's thinner than a deck of cards, this one's for you.

This luxury-oriented model is actually a fancy version of the Kyocera Finecam SL300R, with the chief difference being the leatherette body and the Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens, which has the same specifications as those listed for the Kyocera version's optics but is apparently improved with a T* coating. Small at 4 by 2.5 by 0.6 inches and 5.5 ounces, this little wonder has a lot more to offer than its blazing burst performance. A limited-range but fast-operating 3X zoom lens, excellent macro capabilities, and 640x480-pixel video capture at either 30fps or 15fps make this a versatile minimachine.

The Contax SL300R T* has a two-section body; the lens/flash module rotates up or down 120 degrees, making it easy to point the lens where you want while previewing your shot on the 1.5-inch LCD. (There is no optical viewfinder.) The lens offers a 38mm-to-115mm zoom (35mm-camera equivalent) that's not quite wide enough for interior photography in cramped quarters or long enough for many sports pictures unless you're right down on the sidelines. The lens does offer a choice of wide-angle or spot autofocus, as well as manual focusing, and you can get as close to your subject as 8 inches in macro mode. The SL300R T*'s Speed Autofocus mode makes focusing faster but freezes the LCD screen during the process. A modest number of scene modes provide programmed settings for sports, portraits, night shots, night portraits, and landscapes.

Most of the time, you'll let the camera choose the exposure, but you can select from multi-area, center-weighted, or spot metering and choose aperture priority--but not shutter priority--if you like. If you want a little more or less exposure, you can make adjustments in 1/2EV increments to plus or minus two stops. ISO can be adjusted up to ISO 800.

The impressive burst-mode performance can be credited to the SL300R T*'s pipelined processor, which uses direct memory access to hustle images onto a high-speed SD memory card at a furious clip. Our tests yielded 434 full-resolution photos in less than 2 minutes.

Most helpful user reviews

Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 6 reviews
My rating: 0 stars Write review

Showing 3 of 6 user reviews
1.5 stars

0 out of 10 people found this helpful

"Good Size, pictures good"

on February 1, 2005
4.0 stars

"Fast, fun,"

on September 1, 2004
1.0 stars

"White Balance & Support Such"

on July 24, 2004
See all 6 user reviews Write review