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Status: Failed treatment for L.B.A. and G.A.S,
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on Jan 7, 2022 15:58:48 GMT
Posted: Jan 7, 2022 15:58:48 GMT
Well, I'm at a loss on why my SL400R now shows the 1.00 version. I was sure that when I initially updated it, the displayed version flipped the number up to 1.05. It may well be that my memory is reflecting what I saw on the update screens during the end of processing, and not the one on the camera's version screen.
I just pulled out my fresh replacement battery and it's currently sitting on the charger for the first time. It will take several hours before it's finished, but once done, I'll try to see what redoing the update presents on-screen to confirm if the update actually 'takes' - or that no update is possible, etc. - and/or what the software reports while running.
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Group: Administrator
Post: 1,370 (301 liked)
Join date: February 2017
Status: Failed treatment for L.B.A. and G.A.S,
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on Jan 8, 2022 6:01:36 GMT
Posted: Jan 8, 2022 6:01:36 GMT
Well, I'm ticked that my brand new fresh battery is an absolute dud. I don't have any way of knowing if it's the battery itself or the charger or charging circuit, so my only option is to use the camera while it's attached to the AC power plug. It powers up fine that way, but that isn't how I'd prefer to use it while trying to answer these recent questions on getting proper updates, and I certainly don't expect to use it to take photos that way.
I've only found one supplier for these batteries through Amazon - sold by East Coast Photo - and they aren't cheap nor are they returnable, so I'm at a loss if I can't find another source. I won't be buying any more from the same seller.
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Group: Member
Post: 26 (6 liked)
Join date: January 2022
Status: old digital compact enthusiast, owns several kyoceras
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on May 11, 2022 20:20:50 GMT
Last Edit: May 11, 2022 20:21:44 GMT by sofi
Got my hands on the SL300R and SL300RT today. Luckily, unlike the SL400R they both seem to be in working condition.
Something interesting that hasn't been mentioned yet or anywhere I've found, not even in the manuals—the SL series all seem to have step zoom rather than stepless zoom! Specifically, it seems to hit these focal lengths:
| FL (mm)
| 35mm Equiv.
| 1
| 5.8 | 38 | 2
| 7.7 | 50 | 3
| 10.3 | 65 | 4
| 13.1 | 85 | 5
| 17.4 | 115 |
I have not tested the U4R, so I cannot comment on it.
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Group: Moderator
Post: 2,040 (563 liked)
Join date: April 2014
Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on May 12, 2022 12:13:04 GMT
Posted: May 12, 2022 12:13:04 GMT
Got my hands on the SL300R and SL300RT today. Luckily, unlike the SL400R they both seem to be in working condition.
Something interesting that hasn't been mentioned yet or anywhere I've found, not even in the manuals—the SL series all seem to have step zoom rather than stepless zoom! Specifically, it seems to hit these focal lengths:
| FL (mm)
| 35mm Equiv.
| 1
| 5.8 | 38 | 2
| 7.7 | 50 | 3
| 10.3 | 65 | 4
| 13.1 | 85 | 5
| 17.4 | 115 |
I have not tested the U4R, so I cannot comment on it.
Hi there. I can confirm that the U4R has stepless zooming but so does my SL300RT; are you sure you haven't set the camera to manual focusing? That uses the steps to which you refer.
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Group: Member
Post: 26 (6 liked)
Join date: January 2022
Status: old digital compact enthusiast, owns several kyoceras
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on May 12, 2022 13:59:31 GMT
Last Edit: May 12, 2022 14:37:00 GMT by sofi
Got my hands on the SL300R and SL300RT today. Luckily, unlike the SL400R they both seem to be in working condition.
Something interesting that hasn't been mentioned yet or anywhere I've found, not even in the manuals—the SL series all seem to have step zoom rather than stepless zoom! Specifically, it seems to hit these focal lengths:
| FL (mm)
| 35mm Equiv.
| 1
| 5.8 | 38 | 2
| 7.7 | 50 | 3
| 10.3 | 65 | 4
| 13.1 | 85 | 5
| 17.4 | 115 |
I have not tested the U4R, so I cannot comment on it.
Hi there. I can confirm that the U4R has stepless zooming but so does my SL300RT; are you sure you haven't set the camera to manual focusing? That uses the steps to which you refer. Hello,
I tested right now and found I got step zoom even with AF on. I confirm this is the case on my SL300R and SL400R. I got these focal lengths by building a dataset of all the focal lengths taken from my photos and they indeed showed only five steps were possible, but I largely use MF when I shoot on my Kyoceras anyway. The SL300RT has seven step focusing and not five.
I have demonstrated the behaviour (with all settings set to auto) below with the Contax SL300RT:
And again with the Finecam SL300R:
Here's my dataset of focal lengths of pics from my SL400R, taken from first quarter 2022:
Can you double check and confirm this isn't the case for you?
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Group: Moderator
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on May 12, 2022 15:55:52 GMT
Posted: May 12, 2022 15:55:52 GMT
Hi sofi This is fascinating. All my Kyocera Finecam SL300Rs and SL400Rs exhibit stepped zooming: I freely admit I'd not noticed it until you raised the issue. Thank you for this. My SL300RTs on Firmware version 1.00 and 1.01 also exhibit stepping; the ones on Firmware 1.02 show stepless zooming. Interesting to note that the Contax model originally offered two extra steps, presumably to give finer control; again I was completely unaware of this. My U4R on Firmware 1.00 has stepped zooming while the others on 1.01 are stepless. I wonder if this is purely an issue with the Contax models and their final versions of firmware being able to provide free zooming? It may be because I only use the models with the late firmware upgrades that I was unaware of the step issue; I kick myself now as I sent about a dozen of my i4Rs, SL300RTs and U4Rs to Japan for servicing when I heard Kyocera was abandoning the Contax system. I had originally thought to send all of them plus the TVS-Digital models but I recall the cost of insured postage would have been eye-wateringly expensive. That was a BIG mistake. That being said, it doesn't really make a lot of practical difference to me when using the cameras. Interestingly, while digging out some of the cameras I found a 2002 German trade price list: Kyocera's compact digital cameras cost ( Euros): Contax TVS-D - 999, Finecam S3x - 449, Finecam S3L - 499, Finecam S4 - 499 and Finecam S5 - 699. Of course 2002 pre-dates the introduction of the SL300R/RTs, i4Rs, U4Rs and SL400Rs.
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Group: Member
Post: 26 (6 liked)
Join date: January 2022
Status: old digital compact enthusiast, owns several kyoceras
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on May 13, 2022 20:22:58 GMT
Posted: May 13, 2022 20:22:58 GMT
Thank you for hearing me out, I could honestly hardly believe it myself when I noticed it. I find it so interesting that they made the zoom step-less for the final in-house-only firmware release for models that got serviced in Japan. It makes me wonder what other features the latest firmwares must have added. I hope someone leaks the in-house firmware some day for us all, but I doubt it'd happen at this point.
I personally very much like step-zoom, since I find it helps me with pre-visualising compositions in my head. But it would have been nice if they made it an option to turn it on or off...
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Group: Moderator
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Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on May 14, 2022 9:46:05 GMT
Posted: May 14, 2022 9:46:05 GMT
Thank you for hearing me out, I could honestly hardly believe it myself when I noticed it. I find it so interesting that they made the zoom step-less for the final in-house-only firmware release for models that got serviced in Japan. It makes me wonder what other features the latest firmwares must have added. I hope someone leaks the in-house firmware some day for us all, but I doubt it'd happen at this point.
I personally very much like step-zoom, since I find it helps me with pre-visualising compositions in my head. But it would have been nice if they made it an option to turn it on or off...
It is interesting to speculate on what was going on... I recall hearing rumours that some engineers in Japan who had been working for years on a variety of Contax and Yashica models had started 'freelancing' tweaks that had not been officially sanctioned by their employer. It seems perfectly plausible that revisions to models were being constantly explored, at least in those that represented the greatest potential for profit, in the hope of keeping older models 'relevant' as the digital revolution exploded. I do remember that in the accompanying work-sheets, there had been component-swaps as well as references to firmware upgrades. What was more interesting was that among the large box of miscellaneous digicams, several Contax CDs were present; unfortunately, only one of them was in the English language: Raw Data Developer Ver. 2.0 I'm pretty sure that none of these discs was meant for the public. One of the discs seemed only to contain hundreds of pages of hexadecimal numbers and cross-references to mostly Contax, but also the Yashica T-series, cameras - I've no idea what any of that meant. Also, carefully wrapped was something that looked like a miniature tuning-fork - again, a complete mystery to me. Hopefully, I still have them somewhere in deep storage.
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Group: Member
Post: 26 (6 liked)
Join date: January 2022
Status: old digital compact enthusiast, owns several kyoceras
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on May 21, 2022 8:11:23 GMT
Last Edit: May 21, 2022 8:11:43 GMT by sofi
biggles3 , if you ever have the chance to rip those CDs or scan those documents, I'd be very interested in taking a look and seeing what I make of it. I'd also be happy ask some of my Japanese-speaking friends to help any of the non-English ones! I'm also very curious about those unofficially modded Finecams. I wonder if there are any remnants of any Japanese blogs out there about it? A little off-topic, but I dug through my photo catalogues and found that with v1.05, the TVSd also had step zoom, this time with six steps:
| FL (mm)
| 35mm Equiv.
| 1 | 7.3 | 36 | 2 | 9.7 | 47 | 3 | 11.9 | 58 | 4 | 14.5 | 71 | 5 | 17.5 | 85 | 6 | 21.9 | 107 |
Considering the fact that the SL300R T* and U4R both got step-less zoom with their in-house firmware upgrades, this made me curious whether the TVSd also did.
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Group: Moderator
Post: 2,040 (563 liked)
Join date: April 2014
Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on May 21, 2022 17:36:36 GMT
Posted: May 21, 2022 17:36:36 GMT
Hi sofi , I'm now very confused. I have just checked one of my oldest TVS-Ds which still has firmware version 1.02. Using manual focus results in a maximum of 8 steps, not 6. Why would Kyocera reduce the flexibility offered in manual focusing by two stages as part of an upgrade? Weird.
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Join date: January 2022
Status: old digital compact enthusiast, owns several kyoceras
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on May 21, 2022 19:24:20 GMT
Last Edit: May 21, 2022 19:34:37 GMT by sofi
Hi biggles3 , That's because I'm talking about focal lengths in zoom and not manual focus! In other words, there are six different focal lengths or angles of view that the lens can be set to when zooming. There's six steps to zoom, but eight steps to manual focus as you said. I confirmed the number of MF steps on my own TVSd just now with my own copy. So there's no change to MF steps between firmware versions!
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Group: Moderator
Post: 2,040 (563 liked)
Join date: April 2014
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on May 22, 2022 12:47:34 GMT
Posted: May 22, 2022 12:47:34 GMT
Hi biggles3 , That's because I'm talking about focal lengths in zoom and not manual focus! In other words, there are six different focal lengths or angles of view that the lens can be set to when zooming. There's six steps to zoom, but eight steps to manual focus as you said. I confirmed the number of MF steps on my own TVSd just now with my own copy. So there's no change to MF steps between firmware versions! Thanks sofi - I think I had a severe case of brain fog yesterday and somehow managed to confuse focus with zoom! I blame it on my age...now that 70 is past, everything seems confusing!
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on Jun 2, 2022 21:37:37 GMT
Posted: Jun 2, 2022 21:37:37 GMT
Late last year I got a Kyocera SL400R and fortunately it was/is working, but it's been tucked away and sitting in it's box soon after arriving. Not having a Contax model to compare to is probably a good thing, and I too was a little surprised that a wee sensor size could do pretty well at 4MP. They certainly are very small and very sneaky. I still tend to grab a P7700 Coolpix and a belt pouch to have something compact to take along, and I'd consider the SL400R too, but aside from the smaller capacity SD cards, there's one thing that keeps me from using it. It came with the charger and all the cables and still has the original battery, but they're lithium ion and those teeny flat ones always seem to resist charging before long and give up the ghost without much warning. I've found some off-brand replacements, as no one I've come across so far seems to carry the original OEM versions anymore, and the Chinese 3rd party types don't fill me with confidence when the maker on the label is here today, gone tomorrow. Is there a better brand of these to buy, or does anyone still have originals for sale? The ones I've found aren't overly expensive at $12, but I don't want to spend a bunch on them several times a year to keep some handy. Hey lumi! I was wondering I you were interested in selling the Kyocera Camera to me
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Group: Administrator
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Join date: February 2017
Status: Failed treatment for L.B.A. and G.A.S,
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on Jun 2, 2022 22:05:43 GMT
Posted: Jun 2, 2022 22:05:43 GMT
Late last year I got a Kyocera SL400R and fortunately it was/is working, but it's been tucked away and sitting in it's box soon after arriving. Not having a Contax model to compare to is probably a good thing, and I too was a little surprised that a wee sensor size could do pretty well at 4MP. They certainly are very small and very sneaky. I still tend to grab a P7700 Coolpix and a belt pouch to have something compact to take along, and I'd consider the SL400R too, but aside from the smaller capacity SD cards, there's one thing that keeps me from using it. It came with the charger and all the cables and still has the original battery, but they're lithium ion and those teeny flat ones always seem to resist charging before long and give up the ghost without much warning. I've found some off-brand replacements, as no one I've come across so far seems to carry the original OEM versions anymore, and the Chinese 3rd party types don't fill me with confidence when the maker on the label is here today, gone tomorrow. Is there a better brand of these to buy, or does anyone still have originals for sale? The ones I've found aren't overly expensive at $12, but I don't want to spend a bunch on them several times a year to keep some handy. Hey lumi! I was wondering I you were interested in selling the Kyocera Camera to me :O Thanks for the interest, but no... I'll hold onto it.
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Group: Moderator
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on Sept 2, 2023 19:52:11 GMT
Posted: Sept 2, 2023 19:52:11 GMT
Sometimes it pays to double-check the data you hold for models, especially those with similar specifications.
Re-visiting those data for the Kyocera Finecam SL400R and the Contax U4R showed that their specifications do vary in a couple of key matters. There was a debate as to whether the lenses in the Contax SL300RT and Kyocera SL300R were the same, but with Zeiss' T* coatings on the Contax being the only difference. As I can't recall a situation in which Zeiss produced a lens for a third party that did not carry their name, I remain confident that the Kyocera model used the same optical formula but not Zeiss glass or coatings.
When Kyocera launched the SL400R in February 2004, the Contax equivalent - the U4R - was introduced a little over 6 months later, giving time to update components and software to further differentiate the model from its Kyocera stablemate. This partially explains why, while the SL300R and SL300RT looked almost identical with equally similar specifications, the U4R looks very different to the SL400R. Premium pricing demanded a superior spec and the Contax delivered in terms of a larger screen (2" vs 1.5"), USB2 instead of USB1, a titanium swivel joint, improved electronics and, most critically, that lovely Vario-Tessar T* zoom. But here's where it gets interesting: the lenses in the cameras are different and I'm deeply embarrassed to admit that I only spotted this today.
The Kyocera has a slightly wider specification; in 35mm terms, its lens is 35-115mm whereas the Contax zoom is 38-115mm, while both lenses share the aperture range from f2.8 to f4.7. While some of you may have known this, it came as a surprise to me as I'd simply assumed that the same lens was being used in the 4Mp cameras as found in their 3Mp predecessors, so there was no point in looking more closely. 'Assumption is the mother of all cock-ups' so in future, the motto will be: assume nothing, check everything - and then check again...
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