Kodak EasyShare V610

Shot taken at wide angle

The 10x optical zoom is a great feature for an ultra-compact and higher zoom levels are always useful and appreciated. The lack of optical image stabilization, however, is sorely missed. There were also many-a-times when the camera refused to find a point to focus on at full zoom, even when the subject was in broad daylight. Also, as with most consumer level cameras, the images shot by V610 lacked the edge to edge sharpness.

On a good note, however, the V670 had an excellent start-up time of just around 1.5 seconds, and a shot to shot response time of a second, which is outstanding by any means.

Video
This is where the camera performed really well. It captures video at VGA resolution (640x480) at a solid 30FPS. The camera allows you to zoom in and out while shooting, which can be really useful considering the V670’s zoom range. The voice recording in videos was crisp and clear.

Conclusion
Its tough coming up with a positive or a negative conclusion with a camera such as this one, because overall it’s a mixed bag of both.

As I mentioned before, the camera does give you great bragging rights with its sleek looks, 10X optical zoom and Bluetooth. Most users will appreciate the vivid colors and the added contrast, and may not really have a problem with the camera’s short-comings with low-light, because they’ll be using flash anyways. All this and the compact size makes the V610 a perfect party camera.

But serious users will find a lot of reasons to complain, considering it’s design, lack of image stabilization and the other issues I mentioned above.

Still, the attractive price point of Rs 22,999 seems worth it for the gimmick itself.