Kodak's EasyShare V705, the follow-up to its highly innovative, decently performing dual-lens/dual-sensor EasyShare V570 ultracompact digital camera, is not going to set the world on fire. Though it's true that the new 7.1-megapixel V705 is now available in three colors (pink, black, or silver), Kodak didn't otherwise deviate much from the original design. Worse, because it has more pixels on the CCD but keeps the same size sensor, the V705 suffers noise at lower ISOs than the previous model does—even photos taken at a relatively low ISO of 400 had way too much noise.

This is unfortunate, because the camera's fixed lens makes for wonderful wide-angle shots and fantastic panoramas. That's because, like the V570, the V705 has two lenses, a fixed lens and a zoom lens. The camera's fixed lens is the 35mm equivalent of a 23mm wide-angle lens with a corresponding maximum f-stop of f/2.8. The V705's zoom lens is akin to a 35mm'szoom range of 39mm to 114mm and corresponding maximum f-stops of f/3.9 to f/4.4.

The noise isn't the only problem. As part of the original V570 package, Kodak included a snazzy camera dock that doubled as a kind of photo viewer. With the V705, the dock is now an additional accessory despite the $349.95 list price.

Still, the V705 does have a few positive attributes. I absolutely love its wide-angle lens, especially when you use it in conjunction with the panorama view. With this scene mode, you can stitch together three shots without having to bring the image files into image-editing software.

I also like some of the video capabilities on this ultracompact. Kodak included MPEG-4 encoding for its video clips, which are saved as QuickTime files in VGA (640-by-480) at 30 frames per second. Another nice thing about the V705 is that it allows you to zoom optically—not digitally, which tends to degrade the quality of the video. In low light, though, the camera doesn't produce the best results.

As I mentioned earlier, I was disappointed by the quality of my test shots, especially by the amount of noise I found, even at low ISO settings. The images were fuzzy as well, at least for a 7MP picture. That said, I did find the color and exposure to be pretty good. There wasn't all that much fringing in either photo. In the flash test shots, I found the coverage even, but the illumination should have been stronger. This will most likely result in underexposed shots and in party pictures with very dark backgrounds. As I expected, on my tests, resolution averaged 1,550 lines, which is on the low side for a 7.1MP digital camera.

Physical performance, however, was another story. Like its "V" series predecessors, the V705 has an awesome bootup time of 1.2 seconds and an excellent 1.6-second recycle time. There was almost no shutter lag.

Since this camera has two lenses, I tested both. The wide-angle lens, because it has a 35mm equivalent of a23mm zoom, does indeed show some distortion. Both ends of the zoom lens's equivalent of a 39-to-117mm range have a touch of distortion—barrel at the low end and pincushion at the high end—but it isn't major.

Just keep in mind that wide-angle shots look a little different than standard shots. There is a caveat on shooting portraits using a wide-angle lens: Even straight on, a person's face will not look as natural as it will with, say, the 117mm zoom. Because of the way the optics work, you'll generally get caricature-like proportions.

Although the Kodak V705 certainly boasts some good qualities, there are better options out there. If you're looking for a wide-angle point-and-shoot, you should check out the 8MP Canon PowerShot S80, which is more expensive, but has a 28mm-100mm zoom and outstanding picture quality.

Benchmark Test Results
Check out the EasyShare V705's test scores.

Compare the digital cameras mentioned above side by side