do I buy the M410R?

[hinrichs]

I've compared many cameras, and I was impressed by the Kyocera M410R. It seems to have everything I'm looking for: 4MP, 10x zoom, small body, AA bateries, and many manual features for controling shutter speed, etc. The only drawbacks I can find are: no manual focus and no image stabilization.

But... I cannot find the camera many places, and there are few objective reviews on the internet. This is Kyocera's first 10x zoom camera, and I am worried about it's performance and image quality...

Does anyone have a suggestion for me?!? Thanks in advance.

[stez]

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/m410.html

[Jake Conner]

He asked for an *objective* review... :rolleyes:

[John_Reed]

I've compared many cameras, and I was impressed by the Kyocera M410R. It seems to have everything I'm looking for: 4MP, 10x zoom, small body, AA bateries, and many manual features for controling shutter speed, etc. The only drawbacks I can find are: no manual focus and no image stabilization...
I looked at Steve's review of this camera, and it does indeed have some impressive features, particularly the ability to churn out images at 3.3 frames/second until your fast SD card fills up. I liked the part about being able to do the same thing with continuous AF at 2 frames/second also. I'd think the camera would be very competitive with the Olympus 765, but lacks the hot shoe for external flash of the Oly 770, and the Panasonic FZ10, and for that matter, the M410R lacks the image stabilizer of the latter. If you don't mind carrying a tripod around with you for shooting long telephoto shots, you may not miss the image stabilizer, but I can tell you from experience with my own FZ1 and FZ10, it's really nice to not need one! Both of the Panasonic cameras can burst 5 photos at 4 frames/second, by the way; have you considered them?

[Rhys]

I looked at Steve's review of this camera, and it does indeed have some impressive features, particularly the ability to churn out images at 3.3 frames/second until your fast SD card fills up. I liked the part about being able to do the same thing with continuous AF at 2 frames/second also. I'd think the camera would be very competitive with the Olympus 765, but lacks the hot shoe for external flash of the Oly 770, and the Panasonic FZ10, and for that matter, the M410R lacks the image stabilizer of the latter. If you don't mind carrying a tripod around with you for shooting long telephoto shots, you may not miss the image stabilizer, but I can tell you from experience with my own FZ1 and FZ10, it's really nice to not need one! Both of the Panasonic cameras can burst 5 photos at 4 frames/second, by the way; have you considered them?

Is it just me or do others find Steve's colour scheme makes reading the text difficult? I have yet to manage to complete reading one of his reviews.