I have taken over 2000 pictures with the Kodak V610 in the last 14 days. All types of light, inside and outside, with and without flash settings. I bought the Canon SD700 at the same time and evaluated them side by side. So Kodak V610: ease of use: 10, Build Quality: 10, Image quality no zoom Good lighting or outdoor: 8-10, Indoor lighting 6 (see comments#1) Image quality FULL 10X zoom: 8-10(see comment #2) LCD visibility, clarity: 8, Battery usage: 7, Battery cost: 10 meaning LOW cost (see comment #3),
Video quality: 10 (see comments) Video file sizes: 10 meaning small sizes, VIDEO file only limited by your SD or MMC card size, Bluetooth transfers and wired transfers: 10 (very, very, very nice transferring wirelessly), ergonomic feel: 10 very easy to handle, Software included: 10 (not as good as iPhoto, but pretty good as FREE), In Camera Picture re-touching 8, ZOOM: slower, but adequate as zoom speed rarely gets in the way of a quality picture. HOWEVER, zoom IS available in VIDEO!. FAST startup. Uses well placed buttons instead of a dial. This is much, much easier and placement is very intuitive. 23 SCENE settings, more than almost any camera in its price range. IN camera panorama stitching, no need to do it with a Mac or PC later.
On to the comments:
#1 Low light requires some fiddling at first to figure out which scene mode works best, or exposure change, shutter speed (normal or Long) to use if you are doing it manually. I am just about able to get decent lower light pictures consistently now, but it took awhile to hit on the right scene setting. Kodak does have something I wish every manufacturer had: blur warnings on screen. Red: blurry, yellow: MAY/May not be blurry, Green not blurry. This allows you to immediately re-shoot if needed, instead of finding out later.
The V610 also has before and after histograms on-screen to help you determine if the shot will come out or not. Having said that, this camera performs much better in good light. ( I thought the image stabilization feature on the Canon SD700 would take care of blur in low light, but low light is low light and whether it is sharp and grainy or blurry and grainy, it is still not a very good picture)
#2 In good light, I had NO problem getting the GREEN hand signal on-screen indicating a non-blurry picture when fully zoomed out 10X, even when adding 4x digital on top of that, in good light, usually got the green hand. This just left the Canon SD700 and all the others in the dust, image stabilization or not, and is why I returned the Canon: a bit better low light performance, less zoom, motion jpeg video instead Kodak's MPEG-4, video file size limited to 1gig instead of card limit and user interface just not as good as the Kodak V610, NO Bluetooth file transfer (But a gorgeous camera and performance in every other department. great camera if zoom is not important)
#3 Battery is proprietary, BUT very lightweight, and only $17-19.95. so only a little bit more expensive than a set of 4 rechargables. Available nearly everyone camera's are sold.
The Kodak V610 is not a grown up 570, it is only similar in style, but adds and improves a great deal on that previous dual-lens model. Buttons are clearer, toggle pad added instead of tiny toggle stick, BLUETOOTH file transferring is great
So, Kodak V610 edged out the Canon SD700 because of better controls and feel in the hand, 10X ZOOM, better video capabilities w/zoom, Bluetooth file transfers, in camera panorama stitching, in camera photo retouching, Blur warnings on screen, NO mode dial but much easier buttons, more scene modes (23 vs 16) excellent included photo software. (V610 lists for 449, SD700 499)
While it may sound like I favor the V610, it is only because it and the SD700 were tried out side by side. I was going to return one of them, just which one was the question. the reasons above are why I kept the Kodak V610
