Kodak Easyshare V610 Review

Review Date: May 10th 2006

Leave a Comment about this Review

Introduction

The Kodak Easyshare V610 is a 2.3cm thick, pocketable digital camera that offers a 10x zoom equivalent to 38-380mm, making it the smallest camera in the world with such a big zoom range. The V610 looks to all intents and purposes like any other compact digital camera, until you turn it on and notice that it has not one but two lenses. Its official title is Kodak Retina Dual Lens Technology, and it allows Kodak to offer a zoom lens of 38-114mm and a second zoom lens of 130-380mm in the same camera. The Kodak V610 actually has two 1/2.5 inch, 6 megapixel sensors inside it, one for each lens, and on the rear of the camera is a large, high resolution 2.8 inch LCD screen. All of this cutting-edge technology is housed in a very stylish and expensive looking black metal body. As well as offering 23 different scene modes for every possible shooting situation, the Kodak V610 also has an advanced video mode. You can zoom when shooting 640x480 video at 30fps with sound, turn on the digital stabilizer to reduce the effects of camera-shake, and even print snapshots from individual video frames. Other stand-out features include Bluetooth support for wirelessly transferring images, panorama stitch mode featuring up to 180º of wide-angle coverage and the usual Kodak emphasis on simple sharing and printing of your photos. Is the Kodak Easyshare V610 the ultimate digital compact camera? Carry on reading to find out.

Compare Prices

Features

The Kodak Easyshare V610 has a 6.36 MP megapixel, 1/2.5 inch CCD that delivers 6.1 effective megapixels. There are a range of image sizes (2832 x 2128, 2832 x 1888 (3:2), 2304 x 1728, 2048 x 1536, 1200 x 900) which are recorded as JPEGs. The camera has two lenses rather than the standard one. The first is an optical zoom lens equivalent to 38-114 on a 35mm format camera. The second is an optical zoom lens equivalent to 130-380mm. There is also a 4x digital zoom should you feel the need to use it. The camera has 32Mb of built-in memory, of which 28Mb is available for picture storage - it is not supplied with either a SD Memory Card or MultiMedia Card.

The Kodak V610 offers an Auto exposure mode plus 22 different scene modes (portrait, panorama left-right, panorama right-left, sport, landscape, close-up, night portrait, night landscape, snow, beach, text, fireworks, flower, manner/museum, self-portrait, party, children, backlight, panning shot, candlelight, sunset, custom). Note that the image resolution drops to 3.1 megapixels in the panorama modes. The maximum aperture is f/3.9 (wide) -f/4.4 (tele) for the 38-114mm lens and f/4.8 for the 130-380mm zoom lens, and the shutter speed range is 8 secs. – 1/2000th sec. There are 5 ISO speeds ranging from 64 to 800 and an Auto option. There are 4 different White Balance presets to choose from (daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, open shade), plus an Auto setting. The camera offers exposure compensation in ± 2 in 1/3 EV steps.

The Kodak Easyshare V610 has a normal shooting mode, 10 second Self-timer and a Continuous modes of 1.6 fps with a maximum of 8 images in any quality mode. There are 5 different colour effects available (High Color, Natural Color, Low Color, Black and White and Sepia) and 3 sharpness adjustments (High, Normal and Low). The Macro setting allows you to focus on subjects that are as close as 5cms at the 38mm wide-angle lens setting. The camera offers 3 auto-focus systems - TTL-AF, multi-zone AF and center spot AF - and you can choose from Single, Continuous, Macro or Landscape focus. 3 exposure metering systems are available - multipattern, center-weighted, and center-spot - plus an auto TTL-AE system. There is an AF assist lamp to help achieve focus in low-light situations. The built-in flash offers 4 different modes (auto, off, fill, digital red-eye reduction) and the range at ISO 200 is 0.6-3.4m for the wide-angle lens setting, and 0.6-3.3m for the telephoto lens setting at ISO 400.

To compose your images, you can use the LCD monitor - there is no optical or electronic viewfinder. The Kodak V610 has a 2.8 inch LCD Display which has 230,000 pixels. The Kodak Easyshare V610 can record movies at 640 x 480, 640 x 480 (long) or 320 x 240 pixels at 30 fps with sound. Video is recorded in the Quicktime with audio format. The length of the video is only limited by the size of the memory card that you are using. 10X zoom is available when shooting video, complete with digital image stabilization, and there is trim video on-camera editing and the ability to print snapshots from individual video frames. A histogram is available in both shooting and playback modes. The Kodak V610 supports the ImageLink and PictBridge printing standards, and it connects to a computer via USB 2.0. There is also support for BLUETOOTH 2.0 Wireless Technology functionality, allowing you to share your photos wirelessly with other bluetooth enabled devices like computers, printers and mobile phones.

The Kodak Easyshare V610's dimensions are 111 (W) × 55.5 (H) × 23.2 mm (D) mm, and it weighs 160g without the battery and storage card fitted. The camera is powered by a rechargeable Li-ion Battery Pack (3.7V, 720mAh). There is a metal tripod mount in the right corner of the bottom of the camera.

Finally, the standard box kit contains a Li-Ion Rechargeable Digital Camera Battery, USB and audio/video cables and adapter, 5V AC adapter with power cord for in-camera battery charging, Carry strap, Camera case, KODAK EASYSHARE Software, Getting Started Kit, Custom camera insert for optional KODAK EASYSHARE Photo Frame Dock 2 and a Custom camera insert for optional KODAK EASYSHARE Camera and Printer Docks. Note that you can only store 14 images at the highest quality JPEG setting on the 32Mb built-in memory. You will therefore need to invest in some memory cards to store your images on.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Kodak Easyshare V610 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.

Compare Prices