DPInterface Kodak EasyShare V570 Review
Brad Soo - March 14th, 2006

Finally, a new concept for digital cameras! The rather odd-looking EasyShare V570 from Kodak is the first camera to feature dual lenses - One is your average 3x zoom lens while the other is an ultra-wide 23 mm lens. Behind those lenses are not one, but two 5 megapixel CCDs.

Size and Weight

So how small is the dual lens Kodak EasyShare V570? Let's take a look:

(170.2)  86.0 x 53.5 x 21.7 mm (140 g) - Canon PowerShot SD600 Digital ELPH
(166.0)  88.5 x 57.0 x 20.5 mm (112 g) - Casio Exilim Z600
(163.6)  90.0 x 55.0 x 18.6 mm (130 g) - Fujifilm FinePix Z2
(177.0)  93.0 x 61.0 x 23.0 mm (130 g) - HP Photosmart R727
(171.2)  101.0 x 49.8 x 20.4 mm (125 g) - Kodak EasyShare V570
(172.0)  93.0 x 59.0 x 20.0 mm (135 g) - Nikon Coolpix S5
(178.5)  97.0 x 55.0 x 26.5 mm (128 g) - Olympus Stylus 600
(170.2)  94.0 x 50.8 x 25.4 mm (132 g) - Panasonic Lumix FX01
(166.0)  88.5 x 54.5 x 23.0 mm (125 g) - Pentax Optio A10
(175.3)  96.5 x 61.0 x 17.8 mm (130 g) - Samsung Digimax i6
(165.2)  89.7 x 54.9 x 20.6 mm (134 g) - Sony Cyber-shot T9

As usual, I've included the "DPI measurement unit" (As opposed to volume) on the left for a more accurate impression of a camera's size.

While not the smallest or lightest, the EasyShare V570 is still very compact for a camera with two lenses!

Open up the Box

Open up that box and in it you'll find these:

  • Rechargeable KLIC-7001 lithium-ion battery
  • AC adapter
  • Wrist strap
  • USB and A/V cables
  • Camera case
  • Camera dock with insert
  • CD-ROM
  • User's manual

Storage and Power

The Kodak EasyShare V570 has a tiny 32 MB of internal memory (great for using as an "album" though) so might I suggest getting at least a 256 MB Secure Digital card.

Kodak compact cameras nowadays have fairly bad battery life, the V570 being no exception - It can only squeeze 150 shots out of 1 battery. Here's how other cameras perform when it comes to battery life:

160 shots - Canon PowerShot SD600 Digital ELPH
500 shots - Casio Exilim Z600
170 shots - Fujifilm FinePix Z2
N/A - HP Photosmart R727
150 shots - Kodak EasyShare V570
210 shots - Nikon Coolpix S5
330 shots - Olympus Stylus 600
320 shots - Panasonic Lumix FX01
150 shots - Pentax Optio A10
N/A - Samsung Digimax i6
240 shots - Sony Cyber-shot T9

 

Extras

As far as I know, there aren't any accessories for the V570 unless you consider the I/O combo cable as an accessory.

Camera Tour

The Kodak EasyShare V570 looks a little weird with its two lenses. The wide lens is the on top while the zoom lens is below it. Both are internal lenses, which means they don't extend out. Something worthy of note is that the V570 has two 5 megapixel CCDs which is useful as I'll describe later in the review. A big round cover flips into place when the camera is off. Oh yes, the large print on the cover saying 5X is actually the zoom range, not optical zoom.

The zoom lens is your average 3x lens with a rather slow aperture range F3.9 - F4.4 and a focal length of 39 - 117 mm. When I refer to the wide lens, I really mean it: it's 23 mm wide with a fast aperture of F2.8.

What's so important about a wide lens, you may ask. This is why:

1. You try to take a photo of your beautiful mansion but the only way to get a full view of it is to stand in the middle of a busy road in front of it
2. In an attempt to snap a photo of sweeping landscapes, you walk backwards till the edge of a cliff but still can't "fit in" your landscape
3. Indoor photos are so hard to take because space is limited

You get the picture - conditions like that can make the perfect shot impossible. Not so with the Kodak EasyShare V570! As you can see, this is my work desk using your average 39 mm lens:

Space is limited and I'll probably knock something over or smack into a wall if I move backwards. So, I stand in the same spot and take another photo, but this time switching to the wide 23 mm lens:

Now that's much better! I can literally "get the whole picture" of my work desk.

The bar of holes is the microphone and the circle beside the lenses is the AF-assist beam. The AF-assist beam emits a red beam of light to help the camera focus in dark conditions as well as become a countdown lamp in self-timer mode. The flash has a range of 80 cm to 3.1 m at 23 mm, 60 cm - 2.2 m at "real" wide-angle (39 mm) and down to 2 m at telephoto which is fairly weak.

The Kodak EasyShare V570 has a large 2.5 inch LCD with 230,000 pixels. Visibility is excellent outdoors and okay indoors. The LCD viewing angle is not that wide. There's no optical viewfinder to be found here. Personally, if a compact camera has a big viewable LCD (in low-light and outdoors), then there's not much of a point to include a tiny viewfinder.

Since the Kodak EasyShare V570 is about 1 to 2 cm wider than most cameras, there's plenty of space for lots of buttons. On the left side, there's a speaker with 5 buttons beneath it:

  • Flash setting
  • Delete photo
  • Menu
  • Review photo
  • Share (When connected to a computer)

And to the right, there's a zoom controller and 5 way controller with these functions:

  • Up (LCD display)
  • Down (Macro/landscape)
  • Sideways (Exposure compensation)

I think the zoom controller is a little too tiny for my hands. And normally I just leave digital zoom "on", but for the V570, just turn it off! The digital zoom feature which attempts to make zooming from the ultra-wide lens to the zoom lens smooth (instead of the instant transition from 23 to 39 mm), slows things down and makes photos very grainy - Inconvenient and irritating.

There are 3 mode buttons on the V570's top which include: Favorite photos, movie shooting and still photo shooting. The blue LED lights up on the button of the mode selected. Next comes the power and shutter button.

At the bottom of the V570 is a tripod mount and the battery compartment. So where does the memory card go? There's a separate compartment on the right which has a flip-flop plastic cover. It's supposedly very easy to swing open but apparently not! It took me about two minutes trying to pry it open.

Shooting

You can select one of five image sizes on the Kodak V570. Being a point-and-shoot camera, there's not much for you to change:

  • White balance (4 presets without custom option)
  • ISO (64, 100, 200, 400, 800 - ISO 800 is only available on the 1.8 MP setting)
  • Slow shutter (From 1/2 second to 8 settings)
  • Metering method (Multi, center, spot)

Other than that, the Kodak EasyShare V570 features an average 5 cm macro mode. Keep in mind that the 23 mm lens cannot be used for macro. The V570 takes 5 continuous shots at 2 FPS which is way below average.

The only useful one among the bunch of features on the V570 is probably the panorama feature which needs 3 shots taken at 23 mm to create a single large photo. The camera also automatically merges the photos so you don't need any post-processing.

Despite not having any manual controls, the Kodak EasyShare V570 has a bunch of scene modes at your disposal:

  • Portrait
  • Panorama (Left to right)
  • Panorama (Right to left)
  • Sports
  • Landscape
  • Macro
  • Night portrait
  • Night landscape
  • Snow
  • Beach
  • Text
  • Fireworks
  • Flower
  • Museum
  • Self-portrait
  • Party
  • Children
  • Backlight
  • Panning
  • Candle
  • Sunset
  • Custom (Your own settings)

Recording

Like most other cameras, the Kodak EasyShare V570 can take VGA movies with sound at 30 FPS till the memory card fills up. Movies are recorded in the very space saving MPEG4 format which means more than 30 minutes of movie on a 1 GB card. If you wish, a more compressed VGA 30 FPS option is available.

You can choose if autofocus is constant or fixed. If you wish, there's also electronic image stabilization available when recording. You can also use optical zoom while recording though I'd recommend starting with and only using the zoom lens. Otherwise, the instant transition between 23 mm and 39 mm is not very pleasant.

Video quality was excellent and so was audio quality. The zoom and autofocus motor are both fairly quiet (not totally silent though).

Performance

The Kodak Easyshare V570's startup time is about 2 seconds. You can hear a big "click" sound as the large lens barrier flips away (As far as I know, it's only Olympus compacts which do this!). Focusing speed can is around 1 second. Shot-to-shot took 2.4 seconds. The V570 switches between its two lenses instantly (provided that digital zoom is off). The zoom lens takes 3 seconds to reach telephoto. With no lens to retract, the Kodak V570 powers down instantly.

Image Quality

How's the V570's image quality? Let's see:


ISO 64 (f3.9, 1/8 sec)


ISO 100 (f3.9, 1/8 sec)


ISO 200 (f3.9, 1/8 sec)


ISO 400 (f3.9, 1/10 sec)

I have no idea why but the Kodak V570 refuses to cooperate with me most of the time. This is one of those times! The ISO 64 crop is soft and already has some visible noise. ISO 100 is more or less the same but white balance went haywire. I don't think the ISO 200 and ISO 400 photos look very presentable. There's chromatic aberration (color fringing) in all those photos. As with most ultra-thin cameras, image quality is fairly bad and most of the photos are soft.

Playback

Like all other cameras, the Kodak EasyShare V570 can do slideshows, delete photos, protect, DPOF print marking, crop photos and simple movie editing. It can, of course, playback still photos and movies with sound (Thanks to the built-in speaker). The camera has a very simple playback system and shows one or two bits of info.

Conclusion

The Kodak EasyShare V570 is an ultra-thin camera with 5 megapixels, a 3x optical zoom lens, 2.5 inch LCD and lots of scene modes souped up with an extra wide 23 mm lens and an extra image sensor for it.

It can take very wide photos, fitting in more picture into a photo with its 23 mm lens - where other compact cameras cannot. In addition to that, the built-in panorama feature which stitches 3 already-very-wide photos makes this pocketable camera a real estate or scenery photographer's dream. Another part where the V570 does well is its excellent movie mode which can zoom and focus continuously. And its fairly visible high-res 2.5 inch LCD.

Sad to say, everything else goes down the drain from there. To start with, the flash is weak and battery life is terrible. As expected there are no manual controls and photo quality is not something to be proud of! Finally, this camera is slow - Slow startup (for a camera with no extending lens), poor shot-to-shot, slow and limited continuous shooting, low buffer and the list goes on.

So, this camera is currently the only one with dual lenses. The only reason I see myself (or anyone) going for the Kodak EasyShare V570 is because of its extra wide-angle capability and excellent movie mode. If you're looking for a camera for low-light shooting, action photography, manual controls or superb image quality, then this is obviously not it!

What's hot:

  • Two lenses - Including one extra-wide lens
  • Large high-resolution 2.5 inch LCD
  • Extra-wide lens paired with built-in panorama opens up possibilities for scenery snaps
  • Plenty of scene modes
  • VGA 30 FPS movie mode with zoom and focus

What's not:

  • LCD visibility not excellent
  • Terrible battery life
  • Weak flash
  • No manual controls
  • Low buffer and slow performance
  • Image quality issues are plentiful: from soft photos to redeye, take your pick!
  • Bad low light performance

Recommended Accessories

~Extra KLIC-7001 lithium-ion battery pack
~256 MB Secure Digital card

Other Cameras

Here are some other cameras you might want to consider (Though none of them have 2 lenses neither are they as wide as 23 mm):

Canon PowerShot SD600 Digital ELPH - Battery life is no better, and 25% lower LCD resolution but much faster (larger buffer), better low-light performance (Low noise ISO 800), a more powerful flash and much better movie quality.

Casio Exilim Z600 - The best battery life in its class, a ton of scene modes and excelent movie mode but still not good when it comes to low light shooting and fairly slow.

Fujifilm FinePix Z2 - An excellent camera for low-light shooting (Low noise ISO 1600) along with a viewable LCD in low-light. The only issues here are no continuous shooting and weak flash.

Panasonic Lumix FX01 - Has a 28 mm wide-angle lens (not as wide as the Kodak though). Comes with optical image stabilization which is very handy, one of the best movie modes, good image quality and battery life. The downside is some soft photos and bad high ISO performance.

Sony Cyber-shot T9 - An ultra-thin camera with an internal lens and optical image stabilization. Low-light performance is not that great and burst mode is limited and slow.

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