Kodak Easyshare V610 Review
Review Date: May 10th 2006
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using
the 6M quality mode, which gives an average image size of
around 1Mb - 2.5Mb.
Noise
There are 5 ISO settings available on the Kodak Easyshare
V610 which you can select at any time if the camera is in
the Auto shooting mode. Here are some 100% crops which show
the noise levels for each ISO setting:
The slowest settings of ISO 64 and 100 don't have any noise,
although there is a slight softening of detail in the ISO
100 image. ISO 200 shows obvious noise along with a further
loss of detail. At ISO 400 image quality has deterioated considerably,
with even more noise and blurred detail. ISO 800 is so bad
that it's best avoided at all costs.
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality
50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening
applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little
soft at the default sharpening setting of Normal and benefit
from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop.
Alternatively you can change the in-camera sharpening level
to High, Normal or Low to suit your taste.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Kodak Easyshare V610 handled chromatic aberrations very
well during the review, with only limited purple fringing
present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast
situations.
Out-of-Focus Corners
The corners of images taken at the wide-angle lens settings
were slightly out-of-focus in a number of test shots - here's
an example taken at the 38mm focal length.
Macro
The Kodak Easyshare V610 offers a Macro setting that allows
you to focus on a subject that is 5cms away from the camera
when the lens is set to 38mm wide-angle. The first image shows
how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact
flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
Flash
The flash settings on the Kodak Easyshare V610 are Auto,
Off, Fill and Digital Red-eye Reduction. These shots of a
magnolia coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Auto Flash - Telephoto (380mm) |
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And here are some shots of yours truly. As you can see, neither
the Auto or the Digital Red-Eye Reduction option caused any
red-eye and the overall exposure is good.
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Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100%
Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Kodak Easyshare V610 maximum shutter speed is 8 seconds
in the Long Exposure mode, which is just about adequate for
night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter
speed of 8 seconds at ISO 64. I've included a 100% crop of
the image to show what the quality is like. The camera takes
the same amount of time again to apply noise reduction, so
for example at the 8 second setting the actual exposure takes
16 seconds.
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100% Crop |
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Kodak's Perfect Touch Technology
The Kodak V610 has a unique feature called Perfect Touch,
which according to Kodak allows you to "print better,
brighter pictures, relive your memories in richer detail and
clear up dark shadows to reveal more smiles". It basically
balances the shadows and highlights in a high-contrast image,
for example a scene that includes deep black shadows and a
bright white sky. Perfect Touch is selected by pressing the
Menu button when an image is played back, so it is applied
after the image has been recorded. The V610 either processes
a copy of the image or changes the original (which takes around
5 seconds) so that some areas of the photograph are lightened
or darkened and some are left as they are. Here are some examples
which show the effects of using the Perfect Touch feature
- it's a little more subtle than other manufacturer's systems,
like Nikon's D-Lighting and HP's Adaptive Lighting.
Overall Image Quality
The Kodak Easyshare V610 produced images of average quality
during the review period. The 6 megapixel images were quite
soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpening
setting and ideally require some further sharpening in an
application like Adobe Photoshop, or you should change the
in-camera setting to High. The Kodak Easyshare V610 dealt
very well with chromatic aberrations, with limited purple
fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations.
Macro performance is average, allowing you to focus as close
as 5 cms away from the subject. The built-in flash worked
well indoors, with no red-eye and good exposure. The night
photograph was OK, with the maximum shutter speed of 8 seconds
long enough for most situations. The new Perfect Touch feature
works well with the right images, balancing out the shadow
and highlight areas. The 1/2.5 inch, 6 megapixel sensor used
in the Kodak Easyshare V610 was fine at ISO 64 and 100, but
produced noisy images at ISO 200 and 400, with the fastest
speed of ISO 800 best avoided. With no optical image stabilisation
system, this make the V610 something of an outdoors, good-light
camera. I noticed two other issues with image quality that
are worth noting. First, the corners of images taken at the
wide-angle lens settings were slightly out-of-focus. Secondly,
if set to Auto ISO the V610 generally sets the ISO speed to
200 or 400 when using the longer focal lengths to help avoid
camera shake. This is completely correct behaviour, but because
the images are noisy and lack detail at these speeds, you
will find that photos taken at the long end of the zoom will
invariably be of poorer quality than wider-angle shots (where
the camera can set a slower ISO speed).
 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.
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