Kyocera Finecam SL300R

If your ride can go from 0 to 60 mph in less than 5 seconds, you're not going to complain because the glove compartment is hard to open. By the same token, the Kyocera Finecam SL300R's handful of design flaws seem trivial when you're capturing an unlimited sequence of full-resolution action pictures at 3 to 4 frames per second (fps) or shooting video clips at 640x480 pixels and 30fps.

You'll have to do without an optical viewfinder and a tripod mount. Additionally, exposure settings are limited, and the 3X optical zoom--though impressive in a camera of this size--won't please the ultrazoom crowd. However, niceties such as a swiveling lens and sensitivity settings up to ISO 800 remove some of the sting. The SL300R's image quality isn't anything to write home about, but it's generally good enough for snapshots. This Kyocera will appeal to casual photographers looking for a pocket camera to use at sporting events, as well as more-advanced photographers who'll overlook its drawbacks to take advantage of that awesome sequence capability.

Weighing a feathery 5 ounces with battery and media loaded and measuring merely 4 by 2.5 by 0.6 inches, the SL300R is consummately portable. It's also stylishly and solidly contructed, with a sleek metal body that incorporates an internally zooming lens. However, this camera's tiny size comes at a cost. There's no optical viewfinder, so you'll have to hold the camera away from your eye and compose your image on the 1.5-inch LCD. The controls are quite small and--to make matters worse--have been mounted almost flush with the camera body. The shutter-release button on top of the camera and the zoom toggle at the upper left of the back panel are so close together that it's difficult to zoom with your thumb while resting your index finger on the shutter release. And you have to manipulate the four-way controller very carefully to avoid depressing the center OK button when you mean to press, say, the up arrow.