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Category: Point-and-Shoot

Kodak EasyShare V705Dual Lens (available in Pink, Silver and Black models)

IMAGE QUALITY

The Kodak EasyShare V705 Dual Lens is a digital camera targeted to Point-and-Shoot (P&S) photographers. It has 7.1 megapixel resolution, a Schneider-Kreuznach C-Variogon 39-117mm (35 mm equivalent) 3x optical zoom lens, and an ultra-wide angle 23mm (35 mm equivalent) fixed-lens for wide landscape vistas.

We find the overall image quality of the Kodak V705 to be good to very good with low noise at ISO 50, but we would have preferred images to retain more details. Image compression is quite high producing file sizes that are between 1MB to 2MB; we've had a couple of images that approached 3MB. The Kodak V705 produces images that are rich in colours straight out of the camera. More advanced photographers might object to the high colour saturation.

3x Optical Zoom
Wide-angle 39mm (35mm equivalent)	Telephoto 117mm (35mm equivalent)

The Kodak V705 provides 3x optical zoom. In the above pictures, we show the coverage for 39mm and then 117mm (35mm equivalent). It takes about 3 sec. to zoom from wide-angle to telephoto. The zooming progression is very smooth; however I counted only 5 steps between wide-angle to tele, and so stopping precisely at the zoom position you want is not easy.

Ultra-wide 23mm vs. Wide 39mm

Ultra-wide angle 23mm (35mm equivalent)

And above, we show why the second ultra-wide angle 23mm lens on the Kodak V705 is such a big deal. The area enclosed in the yellow rectangle approximates the coverage of the 39mm. The 23mm lens also allows you to take only 3 panorama pictures (stitched in-camera) to cover a full 180°.

[Editor's Note: While there are other digital cameras that have wide-angle lenses, they are more commonly at 28mm. Two other digital cameras that come as close to the V705 are the Nikon Coolpix 8400 [Specs] and the Kodak EasyShare P880 [Specs], each with a 24mm lens.]

Note that the Panorama feature does not save the images separately but stitch them together and saves them as one panoramic image.

Kodak bills the V705 to be 5x zoom, but it's not all optical. Digital zoom is used to bridge the gap between the fixed focal length 23mm ultra-wide angle lens and the 39mm starting focal length of the zoom lens. It's easy to verify this: go into MENU - Setup - Digital Zoom = Off, and you can't zoom anymore from 23mm to 39mm. We recommed that you disable digital zoom (MENU - Setup Menu - Digital Zoom = Off), and use the camera as a regular 3x optical zoom with the added bonus of a wonderful 23mm wide-angle.

The Kodak V705 has Auto (really, Programmed Auto) mode and 20 easy-to-use Scene Modes (21, if you count Custom as a scene mode). There is no Program Shift available in Auto mode.

The camera also provides exposure compensation (though, no Auto Bracketing) but no Manual White Balance. Advanced photographers will welcome the live Histogram which can also be displayed in Playback mode.

Shutter speed ranges from 1/8-1/1448 sec. in Auto mode. Slow shutter speeds from 0.5 to 8 sec. can be manually selected (MENU - Long Time Exposure). You can set WB but, regretably, not ISO, when using Long Time Exposure.

Macro

39mm, Manual, Long Time Exposure, Multi-Pattern, 2.5 sec., F3.9 ISO 50, Macro, Tripod used

The Kodak V705 can focus as close as 5cm (2 in.) at wide-angle. AF locks precisely and fast, even in low-light. Since the AF works on detecting contrast changes, subjects with low contrast might be difficult to get a focus lock in low-light. Note that macro and AF-assist do not apply to the ultra-wide angle lens since it is a fixed lens and no focusing is therefore needed.

There is no AF Area, i.e. you cannot manually move the AF Frame around on the screen to where you want it to focus.

There are three metering modes: Multi-Pattern, Center Weight and Center-Spot. Exposure and focus lock are achieved thru a half-press of the shutter release button.

White Balance Indoors
AWB	WB = Tungsten

As the above pictures show, the auto white balance is not quite accurate indoors under artificial tungsten light. It is not possible to set the WB manually. Outdoors, under natural light, the AWB works quite well.

ISO Comparisons

ISO 50
ISO 100	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 800
ISO 1000

You can set the ISO on the Kodak V705 from 50 to 1000. The 100% crops above (area delimited by the white square) demonstrate that noise at ISO 50 and 100 are under control. Noise starts to be slightly visible at ISO 200 and up to ISO 400 is usable. At ISO 800 and ISO 1000, the presence of noise takes the form of coloured splotches.

[Editor's Note: Since we are most interested in ISO when using high ISOs in low-light situations, the above images are therefore usually taken in a low-light situation where long shutter speeds are necessary to correctly expose the images. However, on the Kodak V705, Long Time Exposure is only possible when ISO is set to Auto. Therefore, we have used flash to obtain the above images. If you look at the EXIF info, you'll notice that though the ISO changes, the exposure settings do not -- it seems that the Kodak V705 varies the flash output instead to obtain correct exposure.]

Chromatic Aberrations

We were not able to find CA in everyday shots. An example is the high contrast picture above where you normally gets CA among the leaves. Instead we get highlights clipping in high contrast shots.

Long Shutter Speed

39mm, Manual Long Time Exposure, Multi-Pattern, 8 sec., F3.9, ISO 50 Self-timer, Tripod Used

The Kodak V705 allows the use of a long shutter speed of up to 8 sec. in Manual mode, therefore allowing some limited night photography. It seems to use ISO 50 most (if not all) of the time, probably to keep noise levels in check. Generally, with CCD image sensors, noise usually becomes more prominent at slow shutter speeds. The kodak V705 has noise reduction (NR) algorithm that automatically kicks in at shutter speeds slower than 0.5 sec. and you'll notice a longer processing time (approx. twice the exposure time) before the next picture can be taken.

To test this noise reduction algorithm, we take a low-light indoors shot using a long shutter speed of 8 sec. The NR works quite well, though the image appears very soft and dark (obviously even 8 sec. is not enough).

Long Shutter Speed - PERFECT TOUCH Technology

Same picture as above but with PERFECT TOUCH Technology applied

To correct underexposed images as the one above, the Kodak V705 has a PERFECT TOUCH Technology feature that brightens the image in-camera. The above picture is the result. Not bad, eh?

Overall, the Kodak V705 is capable of producing good to very good image quality with good image detail overall (though some detail loss is very apparent depending on the subject matter). Images also look soft. One area needing improvement is that highlights tend to be easily blown in high contrast situations.

The pictures in the Kodak EasyShare V705 Dual Lens Photo Gallery page provide a good sample of what the camera is capable of. I have provided samples at 800x600 pixels (compressed to Quality 60/100 in Photoshop Elements) as well as the 7.1MP 3072× 2304 pixels original size. Click on the image for the original version.

You can safely assume that most macro shots and slow shutter speed shots required the use of a tripod. Any image that is adjusted for levels in Photoshop has "_adjusted" appended to the file name (though the original sized image is, of course, not adjusted). The navigation images at the top are usually adjusted (levels and sharpening).

I have defaulted the image size to 800x600 pixels. For those who have their monitor resolution set to 1024x728 pixels, everything should snugly fit and you should not have to scroll to see the whole image. If your monitor is set to 800x600 pixels resolution, start the slide show and then scroll to the right to position the image within your screen width. Then, press F11 (if you are using Internet Explorer) to switch to full screen mode, and the image should fill your screen nicely. Press F11 again at any time to switch your monitor display back to normal mode.

To return to this page from the Photo Gallery, click on the animated graphics of the camera.

Please open and download the original size version only if you need to and only once to your hard drive -- and save me some precious bandwidth. Thanks!