I've been distracted from blogging - a lot of fun interacting with the folks at the DP Review Forums and in my work life. I would write that I picked up a second hand Kodak V705 - always wanted the 23mm wide angle and in-camera-pano-stitch in the dual lens pocket. There's the old saying of "be careful for what you wish for, you might get it and it's not what you want".
Well, for the second hand price, it has given me much joy - as much I suppose as those Olympus PEN EP-1 owners are getting. This small camera lets you let your hair down - you don't have to be so ultra formal and ego centric with a big DSLR and big lens, you just stretch out your arms, point and shoot, and oh, well, if it doesn't work, next time, you did try.
There are serious deficiencies with this Kodak V705. The JPEG compression is really aggresive - the Kodak P880 which I also have has selectable compression but the V705 does not - it's a V series, not an el cheapo C series - why did they make it compress JPEGs so much? Buyers of the camera when it was new would have had enough money to buy more SD cards for sure, so card capacity isn't an issue. Maybe it's the camera busy time during file save.....
The second lens, the 3x zoom is poky to autofocus despite the impressive looking illuminated AF points on the LCD screen (the P880, even more expensive does not have that) and having an AF LED (that you can't switch off). And sometimes, it just loses focus trying too hard - maybe my second hand sample is faulty.
But the 23mm equivalent angle of view that I bought it for? That's a barrel of fun.
The V705 is now my in-pocket-always-with-me camera.
Looks like Rome? No, it's the Box Hill Town Hall.
I call this, Pierre as he goes home after a long day....
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