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Kyocera 4.0MP Digital Camera
Reviewed by
Eamon Hickey
on 09/09/2004
camera on top back side

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$56.95

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Add to my list Product summary

The good: Big zoom range for telephoto junkies; no buffer stall in continuous shooting; decent image quality; 30fps video capture at 640x480 pixels.

The bad: Some important settings buried in menus; lens offers little wide-angle capability; somewhat long flash-recycle times.

The bottom line: A big zoom range and market-leading continuous-shooting speed combine to make this megazoom model a good option for telephotophiles and action fans.

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CNET editors' review

  • CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
    Detailed editors' rating
      Design : 7.0
      Features : 7.0
      Performance : 8.0
      Image quality : 8.0
      Overall score: 7.6 (3.5 stars)
  • Reviewed by:
    Eamon Hickey
  • Edited by:
    Aimee Baldridge
  • Reviewed on: 09/09/2004
  • Released on: 04/15/2004
Kyocera's 4-megapixel Finecam M410R, which sports a 10X zoom lens, may look like another me-too megazoom digicam, but the company says that speedy performance provided by a technology it calls RTune sets this model apart. We found that to be partly true, and when you add in the Finecam M410R's acceptable design and feature set, you have a serviceable midrange-to-advanced snapshot camera.Made of black plastic, the Kyocera Finecam M410R weighs 15 ounces with batteries and media installed, and it's fairly compact for a 10X zoom model. Its construction quality feels decent, and the grip is comfortable and secure.


The knurled ring on the lens barrel is just for looks--it's not a functioning focus ring. The adapter ring that comes with the camera serves as a lens hood and lets you attach filters and accessory lenses.

The zoom toggle falls comfortably under your right thumb. The three buttons to the left let you switch between viewing with the LCD and the EVF, pop up the flash, and apply exposure compensation, respectively.

A rear-mounted, four-way pad with a center Set button controls most of the Finecam M410R's functions, and the rest of the buttons and dials are well placed. The camera's menu system is fairly logical, but we disliked having to drill so far into it to change the exposure mode, the metering mode, and the ISO. The position of the top-mounted main command dial also caused us to inadvertently change shooting modes several times.


Automatic, continuous shooting, video, scene, and playback modes are accessible via the mode dial, along with the camera setup menu. The Ext selection activates a range of manual settings in the menu system.

The controller pad gives you quick access to flash and focus modes and lets you change aperture and shutter speed settings when you're in aperture- or shutter-priority mode. You also navigate LCD menus with the controller, and the Set button doubles as a quick review key.

The Kyocera Finecam M410R's feature set is aimed at telephoto lovers who want more than just snapshot capabilities but who don't necessarily need comprehensive manual controls. The 10X zoom lens covers a range from 37mm to 370mm in 35mm-camera-equivalent terms. Individual preferences vary, of course, but that range offers too little wide-angle capability for our tastes. The maximum aperture of the lens is f/2.8 at the wide end and narrows to only f/3.1 at the telephoto end, which improves low-light performance. You have a choice of spot or wide-area autofocus.


You'll need a high-speed, high-capacity SD card to take full advantage of the Finecam M410R's fast continuous-shooting capabilities.

More unusual than its big zoom range is the Finecam M410R's ability to shoot continuous photo sequences at 3.3fps (frames per second) without ever pausing or slowing to clear the buffer, a benefit of the RTune image-processing engine.

The camera's exposure-mode options include programmed auto, shutter priority, aperture priority, and four automatic scene modes. You can choose from evaluative, center-weighted, and spot light metering, and you can use an easily accessible exposure compensation function to adjust your exposure plus or minus 2EV. When you activate exposure-compensation, an image histogram automatically appears on the LCD or in the electronic viewfinder, which is a nice touch. You can also set the camera to display the histogram full-time in record mode. White-balance choices include auto, four presets, and custom. Light-sensitivity settings range from ISO 100 to ISO 800, which is unusually high for a consumer digicam.

This Kyocera captures still images in JPEG format only at two compression settings and four different resolutions. An impressive movie mode lets you record 640x480-pixel video with sound at 30fps in clips as long as your card capacity allows.

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Reviews from around the WebPowered by alaTest

  • alaTest.com

    Editors' rating: 54

    Summary: alaTest has collected and analyzed 89 reviews of Kyocera Finecam M410R from international magazines and websites. Experts rate this product 76/100 and users 84/100. Comparing these reviews to 123322 other Digital SLR Cameras reviews gives this product an overall alaScore™ 54/100 = Fair.

    Read full review

  • dcresource.com

    Summary: You'll find a big lens cap and retaining strap in the box which you can use to protect that 10X zoom lens

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  • pcmag.com

    Editors' rating: 70

    Read full review

Kyocera 4.0MP Digital Camera

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