Editor's Choice 2006: Ultrathin Compact Cameras

As this issue was about to go to press, Kodak showed us a camera that redefines what a compact can be. Cosmetically, the EasyShare V610 is the fraternal twin to our ultrathin compact of the year, the Kodak EasyShare V570 -- and while it's not quite as slim, it is the world's smallest camera with 10X optical zooming. The V610's dual-lens technology is brilliant, but for real-world shooting, we prefer the V570's blend of fixed wide-angle and traditional zooming.

You're not seeing double. There are two Schneider lenses on the Kodak Easy-Share V570, part of an innovative design that builds an unusually wide focal-length range into a very small, thin camera. The lower lens is a conventional 3X zoom, the equivalent of 39-117mm f/3.9-4.4 in 35mm. The upper lens has a fixed focal length that's about equal, in 35mm, to a superwide 23mm f/2.8. Neither of these lenses extends from the camera when you turn it on, or when you zoom, because its optics are folded like a sideways periscope into the body. And each lens has its own five-megapixel CCD image sensor. When you want to go wider or longer, you just hold down the zoom rocker and the camera shifts back and forth between the lenses.

Ingenious optics aside, the V570 is a high-style camera. Even its dual-lens design is reminiscent of a vintage twin-lens reflex camera. Squared-off corners, a dot-patterned silver back plate, and a matte-silver sliding lens cover pick up the retro look; the supplied dock even looks like the flying saucer in Forbidden Planet. In every way that counts, however, the V570 is fully modern. Most of the camera back is consumed by a 2.5-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD. Built-in software automatically corrects distortion to maximize the quality of wide-angle shots, but you can turn it off for more of a fisheye effect. And panorama mode stitches three shots together for a 180-degree angle of view.