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Select a Kodak digital camera ----- 2008 models ----- Kodak Z8612 IS Kodak Z1285 ----- 2007-2008 models ----- Kodak Z812 IS Kodak V1253 Kodak M753 ----- 2007 models ----- Kodak Z712 IS Kodak Z885 Kodak V1003 Kodak V803 Kodak C763 Kodak C653 Kodak C613 ----- 2006 models ----- Kodak Z650 Zoom Kodak Z612 Kodak V705 Kodak V610 Kodak V603 Kodak V570 Kodak C875 Kodak Printer 500 ----- 2005-2006 models ----- Kodak P880 Wide Zoom Kodak P850 Zoom Kodak ONE Kodak V530 ----- 2005 models ----- Kodak Z7590 Zoom Kodak Z760 Zoom Kodak Z740 Zoom Kodak Z730 Zoom Kodak Z700 Zoom Kodak V550 Zoom Kodak V530 Zoom Kodak C340 Kodak C300 -- 2004 & earlier -- Kodak DX7630 Zoom Kodak DX7590 Zoom Kodak DX6490 Zoom Kodak LS753 Zoom Kodak Printer 6000

Category: Point-and-Shoot

HANDLING & FEEL

The Kodak EasyShare V570 Dual Lens looks like a regular compact digital camera on the outside with a mostly metal solid construction. It looks fashionable and, with its flush design, will fit into your jeans pocket (though it's a bit wide).

A docking station comes standard. Place the Kodak V570 on its docking station and it starts to recharge the battery. It takes approximately 3 hours to completely recharge a new or fully depleted battery. A 3-part indicator (3 battery charging LED lights) on the docking station gives an approximation of how much the battery is currently charged. When fully charged, all three battery charging lights on the docking station light solid green and the Favorites, Movie and AUTO/SCN buttons on the camera light solid blue.

A cool feature of the docking station is the Slide Show button: press the Slide Show button on the docking station, and your camera becomes a hands-free display unit running a slide show of your pictures (10 sec. interval). The camera sits on the docking station at a slight angle for comfortable viewing. The high resolution of the LCD plus a wide viewing angle makes reviewing pictures with others easier.

Press the Transfer button and your images are immediately transferred to your PC using the EasyShare software.

[Editor's Note: Read our review of the Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock Plus Series 3 printer for a complete home printing solution for easy borderless 4x6 in. prints.]

The Kodak V570 has an overall black body with chrome accents. A small and thin strap post serves as a minimalist grip and use of the wrist strap is highly recommended. The optical zoom lenses are flush with the body and do not extend (thanks to the use of folded optics).

Yes, you read this right. As the camera's name implies, there are not one but two quality Schneider KREUZNACH C-VARIOGON lenses on the Kodak V570. One is a regular 3x optical zoom lens (39-117 mm, 35mm equivalent) and the second one is a 23 mm-fixed wide-angle lens. When you power on the camera, the metal lens cover slides open and reveals the two lenses: the ultra-wide angle lens above the standard zoom lens. Interestingly, Kodak engraves the 35mm equivalent focal lengths on the camera. "Behind" each lens is an image sensor with 5.0MP resolution each.

Startup time is at about 2 sec. (from power ON to image appearing on LCD), shot to shot time is fast about less than 1 sec. (4 shots until the buffer is full), and there is no practical shutter lag. Autofocus is fast and precise. The Kodak V570 uses the Secure Digital (SD) memory card.

Included in the box is a rechargeable Li-ion battery that can take about 150 shots with LCD on (CIPA standard) on a fresh charge and a docking station (Photo Frame Dock 2) that will recharge a new or fully depleted battery in approx. 3 hours. The included AC adapter used to power the docking station can also be plugged directly into the camera to recharge the battery.

There is no Terminal connector on the camera so to transfer images from camera to your PC, you need to use the docking station (or purchase the optional USB/AV connector).

The flash is powerful and physically placed close to the top edge, so be careful your left fingers do not get in the way when using flash.

Controls

There is no Mode Dial but a series of small buttons on the top and on the back of the camera give access to the various modes. On the top of the camera is the Shutter Release button, Power ON/OFF button, AUTO/SCN button, Movie button, and Favorites button.

On the back of the camera are the Flash, Delete, Menu, Review, and Share buttons on the left side of the LCD, and the Zoom Lever and mini Joystick ("4 Way Controller") on the right of the LCD. Besides, Flash and Macro/Infinity, all functions are accessed through the Menu button.

The mini Joystick LEFT and RIGHT positions are defaulted to Exposure Compensation, so beginners should be careful that they do not inadvertently dial in an exposure compensation and end up with lots of under- or over-exposed pictures. I personally love this implementation.

Overall though, I find the control buttons somewhat difficult to operate at first, and would have preferred a few extra mm, both in length and width (or switch to round buttons, but then that would change the design look). However, each click is precise, and you do get used to them after a while.

You can record movies with sound (continuous based on memory capacity) at either 640 x 480 or 320x240 pixels at 30fps. You can use optical zoom during movie recording though the zooming noise will also be recorded. You can set focus to be Continuous AF or Single AF, as well as turn Image Stabilizer ON (available for movie recording only).

If you prefer to keep movie clip lengths to a reasonable size (say for emailing), you can also specify max. clip length of 5 sec,. 15 sec., or 30 sec.

A feature that Kodak gets right is the tripod socket that is: 1) metal and 2) almost centered inline with the lens. This permits taking easy panorama pictures on a tripod. If Kodak can provide a metal tripod and position it properly on a P&S camera, why can't other digital camera manufacturers do the same?

Speaking of panoramas, the in-camera stitching of up to 3 pictures is among the best I've seen so far. Read more about it in the User's Experience section.

The Battery Compartment is at the bottom of the camera and there is a latch to keep the battery from accidentally falling. You won't be able to change battery or card when the camera is on a tripod. The SD Card Compartment is on the right side of the camera (viewed from the back), protected by a metal-coloured plastic flap.

LCD & Menus

There is no optical viewfinder but a very nice extra large 2.5 in. LCD monitor with a high 230,000 pixels resolution. The LCD has a fast 24fps refresh rate for a smooth display in good light and low light. The LCD monitor's brightness cannot be adjusted but is very clear and automatically gains up extremenly well in low-light (just slightly grainy) and well in extreme low-light (grainy). Kodak LCDs remain among the very best we've used so far with the best low-light performance and a wide viewing angle.

There is an AF-assist light (the lamp beside the two lenses) and it is very effective in low-light. It will not fire when you have selected the ultra-wide angle lens because that is a fixed focal length lens and therefore no focusing is ever needed.

	MENU 1 of 4 - Self-Timer: On, Off - Burst: On, Off - Picture Size: 5.0, 4.4 [3:2], 4.0, 3.1, 1.8 - White Balance: Auto, Daylight, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Open Shade
	MENU 2 of 4 - ISO: Auto, 64, 100, 200, 400, 800 [1.8MP] - Color Mode: High Color, Natural Color, Low Color, Black & White, Sepia - Sharpness: HIgh, Normal, Low - Exposure Metering: Multi-Pattern, Center-Weight, Center-Spot
	MENU 3 of 4 - AF Control [Still]: Continuous AF, Single AF - Focus Zone: Multi-Zone, Center-Zone - Long Time Exposure: None, 0.5, 0.7, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 6.0, 8.0 sec. - Set Album [Still]: Off, album name
	MENU 4 of 4 - Image Storage: Auto, Internal Memory - Setup Menu
	SETUP 1 of 5 - Return - Camera Sounds: Theme, Power, Focus Lock - Sound Volume: Off, High, Medium, Low - Digital Zoom: On, Off
	SETUP 2 of 5 - LCD Dimmer: 30 sec, 20 sec., 10 sec., Off - Auto Power Off: 10 min, 5 min, 3 min, 1 min. - Date & Time - Video Out: NTSC, PAL
	SETUP 3 of 5 - Photo Frame - Distortion Compensation: On, Off [Turn On to reduce distortion caused by the ultra-wide angle lens] - Orientation Sensor: On, Off, On Transfer - Red Eye Preflash: On, Off
	SETUP 4 of 5 - Date Stamp: Off, YYYYMMDD, MMDDYYYY, DDMMYYYY - Video Date Display: None, YYYYMMDD, MMDDYYYY, DDMMYYYY, YYYYMMDD HH:MM, MMDDYYYY HH:MM, DDMMYYYY HH:MM - Blur Warning: On, Off - Language: 18 languages to choose from
	SETUP 5 of 5 - Format - About
	LANGUAGE - 18 languages to choose from
	METERING - Multi-Pattern - Center-Weight - Center-Spot [should really just say Spot]
	ISO 1 of 2 - Auto - 64 - 100 - 200
	ISO 2 of 2 - 400 - 800 (available only in 1.8MP picture size)
	PROGRAM MODE - AUTO, Macro ON, Flash Auto, 5.0MP, Space left for 632 images, SD Card used, Tungsten WB, +0.3EV Exposure Compensation, Live Histogram - Framing Grid displayed [press the i/LCD button (UP ARROW key) until grid displays] - Note that, regretably, shutter speed and aperture never display - Blur Warning only displays AFTER the picture is taken
Click for larger view	LCD INFO - AUTO, Burst mode, Date Stamp, Flash OFF, 5.0MP resolution, Space left for 17 images, Internal Memory used, Continuous AF, Center Zone focus, Center-Weight metering, Daylight WB, ISO 64, Battery Low Indicator, -0.7EV exposure compensation, Live Histogram, Zoom indicator - Color Mode = Sepia
	SCENE MODES - Portrait, Panorama Left-Right, Panorama Right-Left, Sport, Landscape, Close Up, Night Portrait, Night Landscape, Snow, Beach, Text, Fireworks, Flower, Manner/Museum, Self Portrait, Party, Children, Backlight, Panning Shot, Candle Light, Sunset, Custom
	LONG TIME EXPOSURE 1 of 3 - None - 0.5 sec. - 0.7 sec. - 1.0 sec.
	LONG TIME EXPOSURE 2 of 3 - 1.5 sec. - 2.0 sec. - 3.0 sec. - 4.0 sec.
	LONG TIME EXPOSURE 3 of 3 - 6.0 sec. - 8.0 sec.
	MOVIE - VIDEO SIZE - 640x480 - Best quality - 640x480 [long] - Medium quality - 320x240 - Lowest quality
	MOVIE - IMAGE STABILIZER - Off - Continuous AF - Continuous - On

Note: Some of the screens have been "blackened" to permit a clearer view of the settings.

With its ultra-wide angle lens and easy in-camera panorama stitching, the Kodak EasyShare V570 Dual Lens is a perfect camera for large family and friends group shots, wide landscape vistas and real estate shots. The included docking station makes recharging convenient and transfer is a one-touch press of a button.