More Related Stories

Kodak EasyShare V570 5.3MP Digital Camera Eastman Kodak Company introduced the worlds first ... From: $208 to $354

Kodak KLIC-7001 Li-Ion Replacement Pack - Batteries... Brand For EasyShare V550 Our Batteries.com brand lithium ion digital camera... From: $16

Product Review: Page (2) of 2 - 05/24/06

email article

print page

The V570 is slightly longer than a standard business card and just as wide. It is really amazing how these camera companies can pack so much functionality into a space so minuscule. The top of the camera features five buttons; The shutter release, on/off, scene mode, movie camera mode, and the favorites button. The review button enables you to view all the images in a thumbnail format as well as individually. At any time during the review process, you can view an image's file name, directory location (memory card or built in memory), date image shot, time and size.

2576x1932 Click for full view

Scene Modes
The V570 sports your standard array of scene modes, including portrait, panorama left-right, panorama right-left, sport, landscape, night portrait, night landscape, snow, beach, fireworks, manner/museum, party, children, backlight, panning shot, candle light, sunset, close up, text, flower, self portrait, and custom. They beauty with Scene modes in the V570, or any other digital camera that has SCN modes, is that once you set a scene for a specific shot, the camera does all the adjustments, flash, shutter speed, focus, and exposure, for you automatically, so you'll get a better shot than if you took the shot with auto only.

The rear of the unit features the 2.5-inch LCD, flash on/off button, delete button, menu button for accessing the menu, review button for reviewing the images that you've shot, and the share button.

Image resolution 2048x1536. Click for full view

The EasyShare Dock
The EasyShare Dock features three icons on the base; a battery charger icon, photo frame for viewing images and the image transfer button that enables you to transfer images from the camera's memory card or built in memory directly into the computer. When Kodak introduced the EasyShare Dock it made it super easy for users to not only transfer images to the computer, but to view images in the camera and charge the battery. Other manufacturers have copied this and digital camera users, especially those who are computer averse, have benefited.

Image taken at 1552x1164 resolution. Click for full view.

EasyShare software
Kodak's EasyShare software for Windows and Macintosh combined with the Dock make for easy transfer and management of images captured with the V570, as well as virtually all other image file formats except Raw. In a nutshell, EasyShare provides a variety of tools to manage and print your images. In addition to the capability to print at home, you can also order prints online from the Kodak EasyShare gallery for $.15 for a 4x6-inch print to a 16x20-inch print for $17.99 as of May 2006. You can also email your pictures as well as create various projects with your photographs.

First Impressions
The Kodak V570 continues the company's tradition of offering digital cameras that are full featured and easy to use. In an effort to differentiate the V570 from other cameras in its $399 list price range, the company added dual Schneider-Kreuznach C-Variogon lenses, giving the camera two lenses in a point and shoot digital camera. No other manufacturer offers this feature. So Has Kodak succeeded with this dual lens configuration? I've uploaded some images for you to see showing the dual lens capabilities. There are no buttons to push to access the second lens, it just fires when you toggle from wide to ultra wide (and vice versa) on the LCD. The dual lens icon will appear, informing you that the camera is switching lenses. It is really pretty seamless how the dual lens feature works. One other thing, the lens cover is pretty trick. When you push the button to turn the camera on, the lens cover automatically retracts like any other built in lens cover, but it appears to employ some trick mechanical precision. It  really retracts like a fine medical instrument, and the cover is so thin.

This is three images stitched into one. The left and center image stitched ok while the right image did not. Image reduced to 600 pixels wide.

The Panoramic shot feature in my opinion needs some work. You really need to line up your shots to get a decent panoramic image. When in panoramic mode, the camera saves a tiny overlay of the first image, which you then line up to capture the second image. It then saves a overlay of the second image to line up the third image. When you've captured the third image, the camera renders the stitching and comes out with a single, stitched image. The issue I have with this technique is not the implementation, as competitor Canon has proved that it can be done easily with its panoramic enabled cameras, but in the  overlay image that you use to line up the next shot. It is way too small. With a tripod, you might be able to get a better panoramic image, but handheld, it was just too difficult to line up the image with the tiny overlay. I think the overlay image should be about a third of the viewable screen, so you can better line up the other shots for the panoramic image. Practice should hopefully make it easier.

The V570's image quality in my opinion is very good to excellent, but you can make your own decision by checking out the images I've uploaded for this review. The colors that the V570 outputs are really beautiful. The photos were taken at various image resolutions during sunny situations with no flash. Overall, I believe that the V570 has a few tricks that its competitors does not, namely the dual lens capability and its excellent EasyShare Docking solution. It has a few quirks as all cameras do, but they are few when compared to the overall experience you get with this camera. Highly recommended. For more information, visit www.kodak.com.

If you liked this article click here to recommend it.    Page: Prev Page 1 2