I bought the Finecam S3 in good faith from Amazon when it first appeared. It was touted, rightfully so at the time, as the worlds smallest 3M Pixel camera with an optical zoom. I am such a tech fiend that the SD/MMC Card memory was also a turn on!

I have invested over $100 in 2 replacement batteries. Guess what... they do not work as well as the original which presently will not hold a charge. I have always treated all my rechargeable batteries with utmost respect; recharging them when they are dead, avoiding temperature extremes, always having a spare&

The facts are overwhelmingly against the purchase of this camera. I am so disgusted with my $500 investment (including the tripods, SD Cards, Card Reader, & Camera Case) that last night I threw my camera down the stairs for the second time. The d**n thing still works! The battery door is broken, but the battery never worked properly. One time I was able to take 125 pictures on my 256MB card before the battery died. I was so pleased with the results that I charged the battery for 2 days & took the camera with me on my hiking trip. I was able to take 3 pictures. The battery was dead!!!

I have built my own external battery pack which works great, but defeats the objective of purchasing such a compact camera& the battery pack is as big as the camera. Now I can take 1000 pictures with 4 AA Alkaline Ray-o-Vac.

I am shopping for a Canon Digital Elph. I could have bought one for half the price of my Kyocera, but I was listening to the specs. A good friend owns the very Canon Elph that I snubbed. We have performed blind A-B comparisons of the best pictures taken with the Elph & the Kyocera. The Kyocera images might be a little better.

My friends Canon always works. She can let her battery sit in her camera for 2 weeks & power it up & take 100 pictures. She spent less than $200 on the entire package. She will not trade with me. I am shopping for an identical camera& it is discontinued. Im now afraid to buy anything new.

Did I mention that this Kyocera was my 4th digital camera? I am so disappointed.

DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF JUNK.