Best Digital Wide Angle compact camera

[WideAngle]

Hi, I need a camera with a wide angle lens to capture the interior of homes for my profession and I also like taking good travel, holiday photos. I have looked at the Kodak EasyShare 5.0MP Digital Camera (V570) but have read a lot of poor reviews regarding image quality and stabilization. Anyone have this camera? I want to spend around $400 but may be swayed higher depending. Is there a more compact SLR out there that is reasonably priced. I have also seen a Panasonic Lumix camera that is around 28mm. I am hesitant about an SLR as I like to take the camera in my purse and when travelling, out in the evening etc. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[coldrain]

The Panasonis Luxix LX1 is ok-ish, but it has quite a lot of barrel distortion at 28mm. The smaller FX01 is very noisy.
The Canon Powershot S80 is the best compact wide angle camera, has not so much distortion as the LX1 and very good image quality. This one is your best bet.
A cheaper alternative can be the Samsung L55W, it also delivers good quality and goes to 28mm.

[bluevellet]

V570 owner here.

I think it is best to sum up the V570's image quality as average for an ultra compact. The colors are accurate (and perhaps too saturated for purists) but the images can be soft. Think of the V570 like a 4MB camera in a body of a 5MB camera. So unless you're planning to print out big posters, the camera should do fine.

The wide angle lens (wider than most digicams out there) and pano stiching abilities make the V570 a no-brainer for someone in real-estate. OIS is a bit overkill for this kind of camera, IMHO, unless you suffer from Parkinson or something.

Kodak annouced the V705 a few weeks ago, an upgrade to the V570, no word yet on how good it is, but one thing is for sure, the price for the V570 will go down.

[ben7337]

How about the Lumix LX2 coming out in september? there is specs for it in the news page from last month.