There are more pocket sized digital cameras available than any other type. Almost all of them are so similar in terms of features that it becomes difficult to tell them apart. Within their Easyshare range, Kodak have tried to offer something different to the masses of compact cameras on the market. This trend continues with the Kodak Easyshare V705.
At just 20mm wide this camera certainly fits into the pocket sized bracket. The feature that sets it apart from the rest is its ultra wide 23mm lens. This is wider than you will find on just about every other consumer level digital camera. The advantage of a wide angle lens is that it allows you to squeeze that much more into a picture. This makes a camera with a wide angle lens suitable for photographing sweeping landscapes, groups of people and wider buildings.
With any digital camera it is difficult to build the technology required for a wide angle lens into the extremely small lenses used in these cameras. This is especially true if the lens is required to zoom in and out as well. Kodak have got round the problem by using two lenses. One handles the wide angle shots and does not zoom. The other zooms in and out. The two lenses combined give a zoom capability of 5x. You should not really notice any difference when you are operating the camera. This is because the camera decides which lens it needs to use and switches between the two automatically.
Aside from the lens other features are typical of this type of camera. It has seven megapixels. This should be more than enough to satisfy most print sizes that you care to make.
There are two areas in particular where the Easyshare V705 scores highly in my book. The first is ease of use. Button sizes are reasonable and the camera is laid out in a way that it makes it easy to find each button you need to press. When you need to use the menu system you should find it straightforward. It is simply a case of starting at the top and scrolling through until you find the feature you are looking for. The second area where the camera stands out is with its low shutter lag times. Shutter lag is the delay between pressing the button and a picture being taken. The times I recorded with this camera are amongst the very best. This was true whichever lens I was using at the time. Even when flash was being used the shutter lag times stayed low. It is only when you have captured seven continuous shots that the camera slows down. This is because the memory buffer becomes full.
In terms of looks the camera is more rectangular than most cameras and is also more elongated in appearance. The camera comes in black.
Supplied with the Easyshare V705 is a rechargeable lithium ion battery. A charger is also in the box. No memory card is supplied as 32 megabytes of storage have been built into the camera. This is quite a generous amount and I was able to take 32 shots before the memory became full. This is enough to get you started and give the camera a test out.
