  The electromagnetic kaon production amplitudes associated to Lambda/Sigma
hyperons can be described by phenomenological models, most notably by isobar
approaches. Experimental data on kaon production have been collected at ELSA,
SPring8, GRAAL, LNS Tohoku, and Jefferson Lab in the past, the measurements at
Jefferson Lab providing the largest kinematic coverage and statistical
significance. However, ambiguities inherent in the models, some data
inconsistency in the cross-sections taken at different laboratories, and the
problem of missing acceptance in forward direction of the experimental set-ups
hinders a reliable extraction of resonance parameters. Predictions for the
hypernuclear photo-production cross-section rely on a consistent and
comprehensive description of the elementary process at forward kaon angles,
where the current strong variation of the models is very unsatisfactory. A
number of new experiments are now addressing these issues, among them the
charged kaon electro-production programme with the Kaos spectrometer at the
Mainz Microtron MAMI. In this work predictions of the two prominent isobar
models, Kaon-Maid and Saclay-Lyon A, are compared for the kinematics at MAMI.
