Product Review: Kyocera Finecam M410R 4MP Ultra-Zoom Digital Camera

Kyocera is more known for its cell phone than for digital cameras, but this early model digital camera sporting 4-megapixels and 10x optical zoom, is worth looking into. With an original price of $300, it has certainly gotten cheaper over the last few years, with an online price dipping as low as $75.

If you want a professional point and shoot camera with a large telephoto lens and adequate number of megapixels, read on to find out if the Kyocera Finecam M410R is the right choice for you.

Design

This camera simultaneously has a retro and modern look, as much of an oxymoron as that might seem. With the block letters, square flash popup, and minimal upper design, this camera seems like something from the 1980's. However, the square body, large centered lens, and placement of keys make it fit right in with modern cameras, as well.

At first glance of the back of the unit, it seems like the LCD is capable of being popped out. That's not the case, however; it's simply beveled quite a bit. The display is only 1.5", which is quite small when compared to modern cameras, but does help conserve battery power, which is a plus for many active shooters. Another plus of the screen is that it's Kyocera's "Dayfine" type, which means it was specifically designed to be bright and viewable in daylight.

The overall design of this camera is quite nice to look at, with a black body and silver trim, as well as a texture handgrip for 'slip' protection.

Photo Quality

Unfortunately, this camera doesn't have long-exposure noise reduction, which pretty much makes nightshots useless for those who want to take photos for printing. The colors aren't as saturated as they are on various other cameras, such as the Minolta DiMAGE line, and the combo of pale colors and high noise makes the images a bit of a disappointment.

Video Quality

Unlike video settings from other many other cameras, the videos on this camera are saved in AVI format, not MOV. Other than that, the low resolution of 640x480 makes this very much standard (ie, VHS) quality, and thus not very usable for anything other than Youtube and spontaneous memory recording.

Conclusion

Though the m410r can be found for a low price point, there are other cameras from this release period and within this price point with better photo quality, making this a fairly unattractive option.