Here is the "bigger brother" to the Kodak Easy Share V570. This one has 7.1M Pixels instead of the V570's 5.0M Pixels. I don't own this camera but I think it has a 23mm wide angle lens. The wide angle lens is what makes this camera "special". And, I don't know if this is a "better deal" than the V570 which also has a 23mm wide angle lens but I think only has a 3X optical zoom instead of a 5X optical zoom on this model. Also, I believe you can enlarge photos made with this camera larger, say 16X20. But, perhaps you can do the same thing with the V570. If you have any more information about the difference between the V570 and the V705 please let me know. Email:boland7214@aol.

So, you ask, "who needs a 28mm or 23mm lens?" You do! Most people concern themselves with how LONG is their telephoto lens. But, most people who "know" know that it is the WIDE ANGLE lens that is most important---most of the "best shots" are made with a WIDE ANGLE lens. For example, you're in Europe and you are trying to "get a shot" of that Cathedral of Notre Dame over there. You NEED a WIDE ANGLE lens. You are in the California Poppy Fields and you want to get the expanse of the golden-yellow poppy flowers with the huge blue sky filled with white clouds above---you need a WIDE ANGLE lens. You are sitting at thanksgiving dinner and you want to take a photo from the foot of the table with everyone sitting on the left and right---you NEED a WIDE ANGLE lens. You are in the garden of the California Mission and you want to take a photo of the ENTIRE garden surrounded by the mission walls---you NEED a WIDE ANGLE lens. It's Christmas day and you want a photo of the ENTIRE GROUP of visitors in front of the Christmas Tree---you NEED a WIDE ANGLE lens. This is where the 28mm lens on THIS camera comes in! So, you NEED THIS CAMERA! Otherwise you'll be cutting off heads and leaving Aunt Sylvia out of the "Christmas Group Photo" this year---and she'll disinherit you and you'll live a life of poverty and misery! :o) If you agree or disagree or know of ANY other digital point and shoot camera that has a WIDE ANGLE lens please write, Email:boland7214@aol.

I have many digital cameras, thought I would try the V705.

The anti blur technology does not work very good, if at all.

Doesnt support high speed SD cards.

Uses Hi Compression, no way to change it = low quality Pictures.

Quick Time Video is not a good mode, I would like AVI

SCN Custom mode is a joke.

I talked to Kodak about these things and they are sorry.

I will stick with a Winner, hp R817.

I bought this camera, having first read the few user reviews here on Amazon. The ultra-wide lens is nice, but like a decent webcam, the images are soft. The zoom lens of course gets crisper shots. In low light without a tripod, this camera can't perform. For indoor shots the noise and dark shots are almost a sub-par throwback to digicams a few generations prior.

As far as the SD card launching out of the camera... YES it can happen. I had a laugh as it happened the 1st time I ejected the SD card. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a design flaw, since I learned to ejected the card with my thumb over the slot, instead of just flicking it with my fingertip. It's not a deal-breaker. But I did want to vindicate the user who posted that his card flew out of the slot. It happened to me too.

After a week of using this camera in all different situations, the trade-off between having a wonderfully wide 23mm lens and the mediocrity of the camera in general prompted me to sell it. I'm opting for a less-wide, but overall better (and more expensive) Canon model with a 28mm wide (not ultra-wide) lens. There is indeed a big difference between 23mm and 28mm, but I like to take shots at parties, bars, on the street at night, and a 28mm with better low-light performance is what suits me.

I gave this point & shoot camera a full college try for it's unique 23mm lens. But in the end the softness and noise made for crummy shots.

Another point of dissatisfaction is that the LCD as a viewfinder is really fuzzy while framing the shot, making it hard to be sure if the shot I'm about to take is in focus or not. Once I take the shot, the LCD shows a much clearer image than the preview (as with all digicams). But the difference between before you press the shutter and after is too severe. When framing shots with this camera, it's always a leap of faith as to whether the shot is in focus. That is annoying. I'd rather exercise my faith in more sacred settings than every single time I'm trying to take a snapshot of my friends.

It's not a wretched camera, but it's not one that I can depend on for good shots taken on the fly. When coupled with a small tripod, it might be the ultimate utility for realtors. But I want to capture spontaneous moments in a wide variety of settings, and be pleasantly surprised by how well the shots turn out. In those situations, using this camera almost always disappoints.

I tried out the "baby brother" of the above camera today, The Kokak EasyShare V570. There are over 30 reviews of the V570 which is "the same camera" except that it has fewer pixels and the telephoto is 3X instead of 5X on this camera. So, this camera is "better" than the V570 but it has the same 23mm Wide Angle Lens. On the web site of the V570 there are some people who LOVE the camera and some who say "the pictures are noisy" or "the pictures are not sharp with the 23mm lens". Then someone else raves about the pictures made with the V570. And, Consumer Reports rates the prints made by the V570 as having "excellent quality" (the full red circle in Nov. 2006 issue). Thus, I decided to find out for myself what this camera can do.

My first impression when I took it out of the box was: "This is so small. It's like a "toy" instead of a "real camera". But, once I turned the thing on and it started to take beautiful wide angle photos my impression changed and I thought: "This thing is 'for real'"!

I took quite a few photos especially with the 23mm wide angle lens. They were all at least very good as far as I was concerned. If you want me to send you some "samples" by email write me at: boland7214@aol.

Nothing in the world is "perfect" so if you are "picky" you might say that the "on/off" button is small and "the docking system" is something I'm not used to using and the software is just alittle "confusing" at first but it can be "worked around" after you get used to it, and so forth. But, if you don't expect absolute perfection, I think you'd be happy with this thing! AND DON'T BELIEVE ALL THE "NAYSAYERS"---they must be "plants" or if not, they might have some gas pains or something that put them in a bad mood when they wrote their review! Don't believe them...believe me! :o)

So, you ask, "who needs a 28mm or 23mm lens?" You do! Most people concern themselves with how LONG is their telephoto lens. But, most people who "know" know that it is the WIDE ANGLE lens that is most important---most of the "best shots" are made with a WIDE ANGLE lens. For example, you're in Europe and you are trying to "get a shot" of that Cathedral of Notre Dame over there. You NEED a WIDE ANGLE lens. You are in the California Poppy Fields and you want to get the expanse of the golden-yellow poppy flowers with the huge blue sky filled with white clouds above---you need a WIDE ANGLE lens. You are sitting at thanksgiving dinner and you want to take a photo from the foot of the table with everyone sitting on the left and right---you NEED a WIDE ANGLE lens. You are in the garden of the California Mission and you want to take a photo of the ENTIRE garden surrounded by the mission walls---you NEED a WIDE ANGLE lens. It's Christmas day and you want a photo of the ENTIRE GROUP of visitors in front of the Christmas Tree---you NEED a WIDE ANGLE lens. This is where the 28mm lens (or 23mm on this camera) comes in! So, you NEED THIS CAMERA! Otherwise you'll be cutting off heads and leaving Aunt Sylvia out of the "Christmas Group Photo" this year---and she'll disinherit you and you'll live a life of poverty and misery everafter! :o) If you agree or disagree or know of ANY other digital point and shoot camera that has a WIDE ANGLE lens please write, Email:boland7214@aol.

PS: I just checked and "yes" it DOES have a "self-timer" so you can put yourself into "The Group Christmas Photo" this year! And, the thing is so "flat" that you can easily carry it with you in a pocket without feeling any "buldging discomfort" when you take Aunt Minnie out to dinner and want a souvenir photo of the event!

As a realtor, I was very excited about this camera for wide angle interior shots at a low price in a very compact package. Unfortunately, the picture quality is very dissapointing. The images are barely adequate for web posting and brochure printing. Pictures are very soft and seem out of focus. I'll keep using it until I can find a better alternative without dropping over a grand on a digital SLR with a wide angle lense. If anyone know of a better quality, compact wide angle - please let me know!

I just ordered this camera from Amazon. Yes, I paid a little more for the option of having it ship directly from Amazon (I selected the option "new and used from $..." ) but I prefer to have the Amazon return policy govern this purchase.

Like other reviewers, I give this camera a top billing - if for no other reason than because of the wide angle lens. I love shooting wide angle on my digital SLR and being able to do so in a compact "point and shoot" is simply a top priority for me. A note of caution: not all the v-series cameras have the ultra-wide-angle feature, so make sure you read the product specs carefully!

I am a little surprised by the negative reviews, given the enthusiastic ones. I think one needs to utilize the Kodak website to take full advantage of everything this camera can do. A full-length user's manual doesn't come in the box, but it is available on-line for reading &/or downloading. There is also an on-line tutorial that walks you through many procedures ...(it's comparable to having a tutor sitting by your side.)

I studied both of these at length so that I believe I understand the wonderful potential of this little camera. This will be my fourth digital camera (my third "point and shoot"). Digital cameras are really just specialized computers. I believe it makes sense to re-read the manual every 6 to 12 months... I always learn or re-learn something very useful whenever I do.

The Kodak Easyshare v705 is rather unconventional looking, but so was my first digital camera --- a Nikon Coolpix 990 (which is still going strong on a research project in Kenya). Innovation is the name of the game and this time I am going to trust Kodak.

I agree in general with John Boland above. My intial impression of this camera is that its an extremely useful product for a broad range of users.

First of all, the "lack of quality" in wide angle photos is not a very considered critisism. Obviously the widest angle (23mm equiv)is going to include a framing of the scene whicch is a multiple of that covered by a normal (50mm equiv) lens and without being an expert, I'd suppose that multiple to be 4x plus. For a given object in the frame, that effectively divides the pixels devoted to it by the same 4x (or whatever). Thus at that setting the camera is effectively 1.8 pixel for a given object 7.1 pixels is still a lot in the market, so any camera with that or less is going to have a similar "problem".

But this ignores the fact that such a camera has such a wide angle in the first place, which is an outstanding accomplishment. The "problem" occurs because it delivers something other siimilar cameras are incapable of and which few people will notice.

And especially in a camera so simple to operate which is one of the reasons I got it (for my wife) With her, and I suspect many, the question is whether they'll use an advanced feature like wide angle or even the camera at all, not whether it provides professional features.

And the point about the wide angle being more useful than a super telephoto is right on, and it tends to be an inherently more expensive feature to boot.

This camera makes me so sad. I was so excited about the super wide angle lens. Outdoor shots with the wide angle lens look great. Although, indoor shots are very poor. The flash is very weak. I read some reviews that mentioned the image quality being sub-par and I assumed they were just being overly picky- but they were right. When I compared images from this camera with some from my old 4 mega-pixel canon it wasn't even a comparison- the canon was much, much better. I can't recomend this camera.

I love everything about this camera BUT....The display is very touchy. I only owned the camera for 2 months and my display broke. I had it in a case and must have bumped it just right. My display shattered. Mind you there is not a view finder so you can only guess what you are taking pictures of. This is NOT covered under your warranty. My camer has been in the repair shop for 3 weeks now and since the camera is so new there is no parts available yet. So I am sitting here with no camera, which is really bothersome since I Love taking pictures. I figured I would spend more for a nice quality camera and have no worries but who knew this would happen! So I highly recommend this camera but you MUST be VERY VERY careful with it!

This is a great camera! Finally someone has made a camera that takes in the whole field of view, not just a small portion of it. Also the image quality is excellent. I took some pictures in a low lighted restaurant without a flash and they came out extremely well. In normal lighting conditions the pictures are sharp and the color is excellent. The screen menu is also very intuitive and easy to use.

On the down side, there are a few minor issues. First, it is rather annoying that the focal length jumps from 23mm all the way to 39mm and then zooms up from there. I would have preferred that the second lense began at 32mm or 34mm rather than at 39mm so that more of the mid-range was available. Second, the battery is rather small. I would have preferred that the battery was larger so it would last longer. I haven't had an issue with the battery running out on me, but I know it would last longer if it were bigger. Third, (and this is an issue for all pocket cameras, not just the V705), I wish someone would make a camera case that had a belt clip as well as a battery pocket. I haven't been able to find that anywhere for any of my pocket cameras.

All in all, this is a great camera. I also own a Canon SD300 (which is also a great camera) but I find that I take the V705 with me most of the time because of the beautiful wide angle shots it takes.

We bought this camera thinking that it would be our do-all "EuroCam" for an upcoming trip to Europe. It promised a sufficient range of performance and features to easily meet our needs on such a trip.

Sadly, the camera is not up to filling this role. We will need to take another camera along with it. However, we will take the V705 for its wide-angle lens, the reason that we picked this model in the first place. It is this disparity between the advertised and actual capabilities of the camera which prompts me to contribute this review.

The need for a true wide-angle lens is both a sufficient and a necessary condition for buying this camera. If you do not need a 23mm lens, or if you do not know if you need a 23mm lens, then you do not need this otherwise mediocre P&S (Point and Shoot) camera.

Good: Fairly decent 23mm wide-angle lens; The 23mm is the default lens; Rapid start-up time; Internal focus and zoom; Chromatic aberration well controlled; Can use 4GB cards; Freeze-frame and extract any video frame.

Mediocre: Soft images; Perceptible shutter lag; Slow shot-to-shot times; Exposure compensation is easy, but steps are too small for digital, and is reset when camera turned off; Flash does not come close to covering the 23mm; Image numbering basically limited to 4 digits; Flimsy construction; No manual controls; No RAW format; No optical viewfinder; Histogram on display, but too small to be useful.

Bad: The Absolute Worst menu system to be found on a camera; Excessive and unadjustable JPEG compression; Poor battery life with very expensive external charger and spare battery; Unacceptable visual noise starting at ASA-400; Forced in-camera stitching of panoramic images, with inability to save the individual panoramic shots; Panoramic component images forced to 5MP; Overlays for panoramic and delete modes are so dark they obscure the underlying image (even with display on `bright'); MPEG-4 video compression gives very poor results.

Synopsis:

If you need a 23mm lens in a point and shoot, this, and the older V570, are the only choices.

If most of your images are in bright light, the 7MP V705 gives better images. If most images will be in low light, the older, cheaper, 5MP V570 is the better choice.

The camera seems very fragile. Treat it gently and you will likely be happy with the wide-angle performance. If you chose this as your sole camera, you will likely be unhappy with your choice.

The ONLY reason to buy this camera is for the wide-angle lens.

= = = = = Some Expanded Comments = = = = =

Twenty-three mm wide-angle fixed-focus lens. This lens has almost decent optical quality; though the camera's processing still produces overly-compressed and soft images from it. On power-up the 23mm is the initially active lens, which is ideal for us. However, considering that this is truly a specialty lens, it would make more sense that the `normal' lens should be the default. Best would be a menu setting to allow selection of the boot-up lens. Better yet would be a camera with only the 23mm lens.

The camera does have firmware wide-angle distortion correction. This works fairly well, at the cost of even more image softness, but even-so, barrel distortion is noticeable to a degree that is not present in actual 35mm-film camera wide-angle lenses of similar focal length. This in-camera correction can be turned off. Doing so allows one to see the marginal native lens performance.

However, being able to turn off distortion correction exemplifies for me how poorly thought out this camera is. The only people who would wish to do this are those who are exploring the artistic limits of the camera - and they would seem better served by the camera having such basics as: manual settings, a physically larger sensor chip, RAW image files, or, at least, a choice of degree of JPEG compression.

At the other end of the camera's focal length the 114/117mm performance shows slightly below average image softness with average pincushion distortion. There are very few circumstances where one would want to use `digital zoom', so, as with all digicams, the claimed maximum telephoto length is completely bogus. After reaching optical zoom limits, one is much better off doing any further 'zooming' in an editing program.

Kodak's advertised "5X Optical Zoom" is, at best, misleading. Actually, it is just flat out untrue. The camera has two lenses. The only lens that can be optically zoomed is the 39-114mm lens, which is not quite 3:1. The wide angle lens has a fixed focal length. (Note, in some places Kodak claims 39-114, in others 39-117 optical zoom.)

Also misleading is the claimed "Anti-blur technology." As best I can tell from looking at the images, and at the EXIF metadata, all this actually means is that at some given shutter speed the camera boosts the ASA. Certainly there is no optical image stabilization technology in this camera.

Speaking of ASA. This is an opportune time to address the camera's incredibly poor menu system. It is Byzantine: being both awkward and time consuming to use. To adduce, `Auto' ASA ranges from 50-200, to set a faster (or to lock in at a slower) sensitivity rating requires going through multiple menu levels. To change from `auto' to the next fastest (400) requires 11 manipulations of 2 controls! On either of the other two P&Ss which we will be taking along it requires 4 pushes on 1 control. The menu system is next to unusable in the field.

Still on ASA settings, the camera does have sensitivities up to ASA/ISO 1000 (though the manual only documents ASAs up to 800, 1000 is available on the camera). Unless your shot is of a once-in-a-lifetime, will never-happen-again moment, then 200 is the max ASA tolerable before noise in the shadows becomes annoying. At 400 the entire image suffers from noise and is not really useable for any print larger than 4x5".

The previous version of this camera, V570, had only 5MP, but the same sensor size. By increasing the pixel count, but not the physical size of the sensor, the new V705 camera actually has more low-light digital noise than its predecessor. This has happened with many of the current P&S cameras, as the makers advertise pixel count as a measure of image quality. My initial experience with low-light high ASA use of this camera is that you might as well set the capture size to 3 MP, as the larger files have only marginally better printing capability because of the severe noise artifact.

Another approach to dealing with the sensor noise is to use one of the commercially available products which, when calibrated to the sensor in the camera, allows the subtraction of much of the internally generated noise. Doing so does allow for semi-adequate 8x10" prints at ASA 800. If one really wants to get carried away, combining the preceding with any of the image stacking programs designed for astrophotography (where dozens/hundreds/thousands of images are averaged together) makes 8x10's at ASA 1000 doable. People willing to undertake these manipulations likely do not fit Kodak's target market.

Back to earth.

The V705's still-image quality is below average for this generation of 7MP P&S cameras. Mostly I believe this is because of the overly aggressive JPEG compression, which is not adjustable (e.g. `best', `good', etc). My guess is that a compression setting of 30-40 is being used. This results in small files, with a lot of compression artifact. The 7MP JPEGs from this camera are about 1.2-1.5MB in size, those from another 7MP P&S I have are 5-6MB. My 6MP prosumer digital SLR JPEGs are 8-10MB. The more the compression, the worse the image. Most cameras allow the user to pick the trade-off point. Kodak picks it for you, and picks poorly.

The V705's video performance is very disappointing. It uses MPEG-4 compression, and at very aggressive compression settings. Unless it is a video of your baby's first steps, or aliens landing in the backyard, you will likely find it hard to watch. The total output datastream is about 0.5 MBS. Compare this with a miniDV tape video datastream of 25 MBS (total, adding sound, error correction, and time codes, is 36 MBS). Better to have stuck with MPEG-2 which would give less compression, but decent enough (TV quality) videos. That is the choice that most manufactures have made. As a result, the videos from my other P&Ss have about a 2 MBS datastream, and so are of much better quality.

The battery. Kodak's claim is 150 still images per charge. I am getting 100-120, with minimal use of flash and the LCD on `energy saver'. Even 150 would be poor, compared with my other digital P&Ss, where I expect at least 200, and often get 250+ if I am at all careful with power-management. This camera has a proprietary (and hard to remove) 720 mAh battery. My (several) other, P&Ss have 790-1120 mAh batteries, and, I suspect, more efficient processors.

Since we are only going to be using this camera for wide-angle, the battery will likely last most of a day. We have not bought an external charger and backup battery because the cost is about 25% the cost of the camera.

Though the body is of aluminum, the camera itself is overall fragile and I doubt will hold up more than a year or two. The battery and media doors do not appear to have been designed for actual repeated use; there is no cover for the charge socket. The media door often dislodges open.

Truly, my belief is that Kodak designed this camera with the thought that these doors would never be used: that the camera would spend its life simply being taken in and out of the (not included in this model) "EasyShare" dock system. This would also explain the relatively large amount of built in memory, and the overly aggressive JPEG compression.

Shutter lag, the bête noire of digital cameras, is very evident with this model. I do not have any method of actually measuring the time between pressing the shutter, and the image being recorded. However, based on over 50 years of tripping shutters, it clearly varies, and I estimate is, at best 1/4 second, up to a bit over 1/2 second. In addition to the shutter lag, there is a perceptible lag in the LCD viewfinder screen showing what is in front of the lens. Together this makes the capture of a fleeting moment, an active child at a particular instant, or a wary animal almost impossible. The shutter lag is much more evident than in same-generation/price P&S cameras from other makers.

The accompanying `manual' is poorly organized, childishly written. "Finish reading this book, so you can take and share your best pictures!" At best, it was written for 8 year olds.

The manual does make reference to a web-address where one can download the `full manual', however the address given is incorrect. When eventually found, the manual is better than the one enclosed with the camera - in that it contains some information that one could not figure out oneself - but it also is written at no more than a fourth grade level.

Panoramics, one of the advertising points of the camera, are another disappointment. Basically the way it works is that 2 or 3 images can be taken in `panoramic mode', each subsequent shot is overlain by a thin strip of the preceding image, in order to allow alignment. As with most `panoramic modes' focus and exposure is locked on the first image. So far, this is all OK; however, it rapidly goes downhill.

First, the max image size of the individual shots is limited to 5 (not 7) MP. Next, the image overlay is so dark that, even with the LCD set at max brightness, it is difficult to see through the mask to align the elements.

However, it gets worse.

The images MUST be joined in-camera! The individual images cannot be stored! In-camera processing is very slow and very battery hungry. Aligning the overlaps on a grainy 1.5x2" LCD in the field gives, in spite of the camera's best efforts, much poorer results than aligning them on a much bigger, and higher quality, computer display in the comfort and controlled lighting of your home.

The best way to take panoramas with this camera is to use a lightmeter to determine exposure for each segment, and then simply take the appropriate series of images as 7MP single-stills, making exposure compensation adjustments based on your light-meter readings. Of course, my smallest lightmeter is almost as large as this camera, so we will not be dragging it along. You can eyeball the needed EC close enough that should be able to match the exposures up in production. Much better if the V705 allowed the individual images to be saved.

Reading back through this review, I see that it is mostly negative. This makes sense, for, as I disclosed at the beginning, it was my disappointment in this camera's actual vs advertised capability which led me to write the review in the first place. Likely I have said all that needs to be said.

So I will just close by mentioning that the only reason we did not send the camera back is because of the wide-angle lens. Except for this unique lens, the camera's performance and ease of use is below that of similarly priced P&S cameras currently on the market.

If you need a true wide-angle P&S, you need this camera. Otherwise forget it.

there are a lot of canon lovers who like to post negative reviews on other camera brands. well, this camera has a unique feature that other brands don't have--in-camera stitching of up to three wide angle shots so that you get a great superwide panoramic shot right out of the camera. no computer is needed. and yes, you can save the shots individually if you want to stitch them on a computer. just save three individual 23 mm shots--it is not rocket science. comments that the camera lacks RAW are silly--this is not a big, bulky dSLR or a really sophisticated camera with lots of manual controls--sorry, but that is not the target for this camera--it is a pocket camera that takes easy, wide angle shots and panoramics. RAw is for people who want to fine tune pictures of their computers.
so, in sum, this is a great camera for shooting scenery and when indoors, getting all the folks in the picture without having to back up far away. i highly recommend it! (and Kodak's colors are wonderful!)

Before I bought this camera, I was worried about some of the reviews. I guess you can't please everyone. As long as you can recharge the camera, or carry a spare li-ion battery, you will be fine. The zoom is great, but the really outstanding feature of this camera is the wide angle lens. You won't be just using it for those indoor family shots-- it is great outdoors too, taking in additional scenery without distortion. The panorama feature is easy to use, too. I took 245 pictures in 7 days and love this camera.

This is about the 5th digital camera I have owned and I think that none have compared to the quality vs price as this one. I was a little frightened by some of the reviews but after getting this camera I have taken about 200 pics in the last 4-5 days (learning how to use the different settings) and I am really pleased that I ordered it. As with all new products you buy you have to learn how they work. The more options, the more to learn. I was impressed with the movie quality also in that most cameras do not have that great of quality. I converted the Quicktime to WMA for DVD and they looked great on a big screen TV. The only little drawback I see is the door to the card that I am very careful when opening.I have always carried a couple spare batteries and if you buy a charger and keep them charged there is no problem. This I think is true with all battery based items with a lot of use. I also keep 3-4 extra cards for storage. You don't depend on flashlights and not keep extra batteries or blame the flashlight when it quits.

I was very disappointed with the images produced by this camera. I had hoped the ultra-wide photos (which was my main reason for going with this camera) also would be ultra sharp, but instead they tended to be soft. The camera has a lag time of about 1/10th of a second, so it's more of a point, shoot and wait camera.

The V705 may be okay for posting internet images or enlarging to small prints, but don't expect the sharpness typical of better quality cameras. In my opinion, the camera squeezes too much out of a JPEG photo by way of compression and shooting TIF files just isn't practical.

I demand better image quality from my cameras and, when zooming in, I like to see detail. I certainly don't like everything going soft.

Is it possible to be in love with an inanimate object? Because I am!!! I love the wide angle lens on this camera, it just makes the pictures look more professional whether your doing landscapes and portraits or just having a night out at the bar. I'm not a big fan of their red eye technology, but the rest makes up for it. You can use the fish eye lens, sepia for an aged look, or spotlight. It also enhances your pictures with Perfect Touch, if you so choose, and your pictures become more vibrant (helpful if they were taken in a dark setting. Plus you have about 26 different portrait settings to choose from (landscape, action, night, portrait....) It was a great buy for me. And it's very sleek and easily fits in a pocket!

The picture quality is good, but when you take the flash off you have to hold still to take a picture or it will blur. If you have the flash on and you are moving or are in a car taking a picture it will not blur.Overall i really like this camera and the wide viewing screen is awesome

This camera is so cool! It's small enough to carry around in my purse. It's very intuitive to learn to use. The Kodak website contains loads of information that is user friendly. Most of all the pictures are beautiful.

Easy to use and takes great shots. I recommend buying an extra card for extra pictures.

This camera was purchased primarily for real estate use. Wide angle photos that capture the whole room, floor and ceiling even. I just too prom photos of my kids at the Hyatt Coconut Point in Bonita Springs, Florida. They've been asked by their friends if we hired a professional photographer. I'm pleased with the equipment and it is very easy to use - without even reading the manual :)

I originally ordered the 610 and from the time I took it out of the package until I shipped it back I hated it. So I ordered this cute little thing and loved it from the moment I picked it up. It really has done the job for me. I keep it in my purse for all those pictures that just happen. I love taking pictures while on the back of our Harley. Pictures while we are riding with our friends or of scenary. It does this with no blurring or missed opportunities. When I push the button the picture is taken. No drag or delay. Bam I have the picture. I like the color hands that let you know if the picture is blurry or not. I admit this took a little practice but once you have it down it is no problem. My other camera was much heavier so I had to get used to the weight difference, which I think was causing me to blur the picture.

The only thing I do not like is you have to use an small adaptor to connect the camera to the USB cord for downloading to your computer. All the other camera's I have you just plug right in. I'm afraid it will lose that little piece.

For those out there that have a camera with you for all those small special moments in life this is the camera for you. If you are looking for a professional picture you might be a little disappointed. For me this is the best of both worlds. Thank you Kodak for coming out with a camera that is light and packs a lot of bang.

I bought this camera for the ultra wide lens and have been amazed at the coverage it provides and the good quality pictures. The distortation expected by a lens of this width is very low and seems to be well compensated for by the on camera firmware. The display is nice and clear and bright, although in bright sun can be somewhat difficult to see. The inbuilt panaroma feature is amazing and provides great results. I also like the ease of which the exposure can be corrected up or down in 1/3 stop increments and the results seen right on the screen. An unexpected feature is the closeness to an object in macro mode especially using the 24mm lense. I have not seen better macro features on any camera I have previously owned. Things that slightly irritate are the ease in which your finger(s) gets in the way of the small flash unit thus reducing the light output. Also the lack of an optical viewfinder instead of the widescreen display is sometimes irritating as holding the camera in a viewable position increases instability although the antiblur feature generally is spot on. I thorougly enjoy this little gem.

This is a great camera for real esate. The problem with the V705 for real estate is the wimpy flash on the camera. The flash was designed to light up people 6 to 8 feet away from the camera, not large rooms. I bought an external flash off ebay that works with any digital camera and the photos are excellent. The flash unit is larger than the camera!

Also get a monopod to help hold the camera steady, the monopod will store under your car seat, the flash in the glove box and the camera in your pocket.

Check out www.realestatecamera.info for a link to an external flash. Also check out www.photographyforrealestate.net for the best information on real estate photography.

As you know, kodak has stopped producing this wonderful stuff with dual-lens.
Satisfied so much, now I'm looking forward to meeting another awesome product.

This camera can do an awful lot. Like stitch several pictures together to make one long panorama picture. Great. It has a 5x optical zoom AND a wide angle. Great. It's got a huge and pretty decent LCD screen. Great.

However, it's basic photography skills are lousy:

1.) It's got NO VIEWFINDER. Taking pictures in bright daylight is made difficult, as you HAVE to use the screen to frame your shot.

2.) Pictures are noisy. No qualifiers here, even in perfect sunlight, there's a lot of digital noise in the shots, even in the midtones. More than I have seen in any other digital camera.

3.) The autofocus is terrible. Even after it came back from Kodak, who fixed it under warranty, pictures are still frequently out-of-focus blurry, and that is when we're talking still objects at moderate distances.

4.) There's way too much contrast in the photos, most of them have some areas overexposed (white, all detail lost) and other areas underexposed (black, all detail lost).

I'm off to find a compact camera that can do 1-4, and I'll do the rest on the computer...

This camera has a lot of really nice features, especially the panoramic "stitching." I wish they had paid more attention to picture quality in low light. I cannot find settings that don't make some photos look dark and speckled.

It's a wide angle camera that you can fit in your pocket--so it's great that way. The in-camera stitch is nice, and battery life is very impressive. But there's some real annoyances too. My beefs with this camera:

* No control over image compression: Kodak has one setting and in my opinion it's far too highly compressed. Forget about being able to take a standard shot and focus in on some interesting detail. They're all lost in compression artifacts. Come on, Kodak: how hard is it to have a RAW mode? And why have a 7MP camera when the file sizes are the same as the 5MP?

* Low light performance is, to put it bluntly, crap. You'll need a tripod, which sort of defeats the purpose of having a camera you can fit in your pocket.

* The flash is harsh.

* The processor is far too slow for any kind of sequence shots.

* Even though the camera has a text mode, it's not very useful. Keep this in mind: if you want to shoot a sign or a map with small print--which I often do on my job--you will find this a very, very tricky process to get right. You have to have good lighting to pull it off, and this is where a RAW mode would really help.

For the money, if you want to do wide-angle outdoor shots with a camera you can fit in your pocket, you could be really happy with this unit. I've certainly received a lot of compliments on the quality of some of the photos I've taken with this (see therealkezekiel on flickr), but they're all on outdoor shots in decent to good light.

I am a residential realtor and this camera was recommended to me as the best for my uses - absolutely right! I love it. I received the camera just as promised with all the accessories and in good condition. I couldn't be more pleased.