EASYSHARE V610

With a long-range 10x optical zoom, Kodak's EasyShare V610 can bring the farthest subjects into full, detailed view. Unfortunately, this dual-lens camera also has a propensity for blurred photos at its highest zoom levels, plus disappointingly short battery life.

The 6.1-megapixel V610 is Kodak's second camera to sport two built-in lenses. The V610 has a 126mm-to-380mm (35mm equivalent) telephoto zoom lens that sits atop a 38mm-to-114mm standard zoom lens. When you're closing in on a subject, the V610's standard zoom handles up to 3x magnification; to go beyond that level, the telephoto lens kicks into action.

My outdoor shots usually came out sharp enough, but I got mixed results when shooting in indoor, low-light settings. It sometimes took clear, colourful photos at maximum zoom, but occasionally had trouble focusing. And because it lacks image stabilisation, any slight movement produced a blurry shot. Compared with other point-and-shoot cameras we've tested, the V610's images looked less sharp. The pictures were slightly underexposed, too, and white balance was a little off; we also noticed a slight greenish cast in some shots.

On the features side, the V610 impressed us. It offers wireless photo transfers via Bluetooth; in-camera photo stitching for panoramic shots; and a 2.8in LCD. The bad news: the V610 fared poorly in our battery test, lasting just 148 shots - the lowest result among point-and-shoot models we've recently tested.