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(More customer reviews)I was feeling a bit lazy and wasn't going to post a review of this camera, however, after reading a few of the other reviews I felt I had to put in my two cents.
First off, a little history. I searched for weeks and weeks to find a nice compact camera to replace my aging Canon S30. I was looking for something very compact in the 5 to 6 megapixel range. I finally settled on the Casio S500. After using the camera for a few weeks I returned it (see my review for my thoughts on that camera). I started searching again and found the pre-release information on the Kodak V570. I was quite interested so I checked out the V570's predecessor the V550. I found this camera to be quite nice and liked it enough assume that the V570 would be a good camera. I've had the V570 now for about two weeks and I must say that I'm quite pleased. Is it the perfect camera? No, of course not, but it is a camera that will meet most of your needs and do it in style.
Following is a list of what I consider to be the camera's pros and cons. I'll address a few of the other reviewers' opinions also.
PROS:
-Large bright LCD screen. The LCD on the V570 is quite bright and very large. The viewing angle on it is quite wide meaning that you can view the LCD from above, below, left, right or straight on and it will not wash out or go substantially dark. This was something that caused me to pass on a few Panasonic models. The LCD is NOT grainy except in very low-light conditions and this is normal with ALL cameras of this genre. The LCD is, after all, only a viewfinder!
-Nice, well designed controls. The Zoom button is NOT hard to use for anyone with normal sized hands. If you have very large hands then possibly it could be a problem, however, most compact point and shoot cameras would have the same problem. Personally, I find the zoom button and all the other buttons to be well placed and easy to use. The menu system is simple to navigate and is NOT slow. It's quite responsive, in fact. I do wish the camera would automatically save your custom settings on power down but I understand why it doesn't. I think there's an easy way to save your settings but I haven't explored that aspect yet.
-23mm wide angle lens. This is the camera's single best feature.I love to use wide angle lenses. They make pictures more dynamic and allow a much greater range of creativity than normal lenses. I do have one word of caution regarding the zoom on the V570. Go into the setup menu and disable the digital zoom. By default the V570 uses digital zoom to bridge the gap between the 23mm lens and the normal zoom lens. Digital zooms are bad! Optical zooms are good! Digital zooms simply crop in on the digital image and enlarge it to fill the same space as the original. As you would expect this destroys image quality. This is not a problem unique to Kodak so don't berate them for it. All camera and camcorder makers use digital zoom as a marketing gimmick. With the digital zoom disabled the camera will indeed "skip" from ultra-wide to normal range. I didn't consider this "strange" in any way. There is an expected amount of pincushion distortion when using the 23mm lens but it's not excessive or distracting. One additional feature when using the 23mm lens that I really find amazing is the camera's ability to take multiple image panoramas and actually stitch them IN the camera. I've played with this a bit and after only three tries I started getting quite nice results with this. The panorama feature isn't one of the things that really figured into my purchase of this camera but it is one of the things that made me say to myself, "very cool", when playing with it.
-Image quality. One of the biggest problems I had with the Casio S500 was image quality. Specifically, the Casio simply couldn't focus reliably in low light and the images were very noisy. The Kodak V570, on the other hand, nails focus each time and the images are high quality. Obviously, when shooting at high ISO settings image quality does go down but is still quite nice.
-Video mode. Most digital point and shoot cameras have a video mode nowadays. This is an awesome feature that might allow you to leave your camcorder at home on occasion. The video quality is excellent and is actually higher resolution than your standard television. You can hear the zoom if you use it when recording, however, most cameras don't allow you to use the zoom at all when in video mode so just accept it. Remember, this isn't designed as a primary video device but as a still camera with the ability to take videos. When you need the best video you can get pull out the camcorder. When you want an occasional video and don't have the camcorder with you...hey!!!...pull out the V570 and record away.
-Internal zoom mechanism. Most point-and-shoot cameras on the market have an external zoom lens mechanism. What I mean by this is that the lens extends out of the camera an inch or more. The V570 has an internal mechanism. What this means to me is that I don't have to worry about mashing the extended lens into something and potentially breaking it. I recall that with the Casio S500 that I had for a bit the owner's manual actually mentions several times to be very careful not to bump the lens into anything. No worries with the Kodak.
-Appearance. I really like the V570's looks. The design is a bit Art Deco. This is, of course, a very subjective thing but I find it attractive.
-Battery life. While not the best camera in regards to battery life, the V570 does just fine. The reviews I read state a life of around 170 pictures and from personal experience this seems accurate. This is an improvement over the V550. While some cameras can do better let's all be realistic here, 170 pictures in a day of shooting for the average amateur is a lot. If this isn't enough simply have an extra battery on hand. After all, Kodak has some of the lowest prices for extra batteries of anyone.
CONS:
-The flash is a bit on the weak side. The Kodak is a bit wimpy here but when you're within range the exposure is very accurate even when using for extreme close-ups. I actually took some close-up photos from a distance of about 2 inches and the flash exposure was right on. I was actually so close that the flash only covered the left side of the picture.
-The SD card door is indeed very poorly designed. I can see that if you intend on removing the SD card a lot you might eventually damage this. I initially planned on transferring images to my computer by pulling the SD card and using a card-reader but I've found that using the camera's dock is just as easy. I'm surprised that Kodak's engineers left this design flaw intact. Do yourself a favor and buy a 1 gig SD card and just leave it in the camera. Use the dock to transfer images and you shouldn't have a problem.
A FEW CLOSING THOUGHTS: I just wanted to address a few things about some of the other reviews I've read here. First off, there is nothing gimmicky about this camera and just exactly how is this a "bait and switch"? Second, this camera doesn't do RAW because it's designed for amateurs and is a point-and-shoot camera. The average person doesn't even know what a RAW format is or what to do with it. Get real people. If I need to shoot in RAW format I'll grab my Canon 5D. When I want to take a small camera out for vacation or just day to day family pictures I'll take the V570 and leave the heavy hardware at home. Third, every single camera I've ever owned or looked at has at least one feature that I would think of as a "design flaw". Whether that feature is enough to keep me away from it is another matter. To say that this camera is a "typical poor American design" is simply rude and inaccurate. My goodness, I almost laughed when I read the comments about not knowing what side was up when pulling the camera out of your pocket. My God man, OPEN YOUR EYES. OK, now that I got that off my chest I can relax. This is a solid camera that I think most people would be happy with.
UPDATE: I just felt the need to update this review to address the comments made by "AJM". Now, I have no problem if people take issue with an item. If the product is poorly designed or doesn't function properly. My problem lies with people that simply make stuff up. When "AJM" says "when you eject the memory card, it will spring and fly across the room" I tend to get a bit angry. This is WRONG. I took my V570 and no matter what I did I couldn't get the card to "spring" more than half way out of the camera. To remove the card you simply depress it with your fingertip and it is spring loaded to pop up enough to remove it. It will not come flying out of the camera. It's obvious that AJM has never owned the camera and is probably just a plant for Canon. As for me, I'm a professional photographer in Wisconsin. I shoot on some pretty high-end equipment for work but when I'm out and about on personal trips I leave the big stuff at home and take a point and shoot. I have no allegiance to any specific brand of camera. In fact, I own both Canon and Kodak point and shoots and have done quite a bit of work on Nikon, Canon and Minolta Pro products too. There are a whole bunch of nice cameras out there. All I want to do is to present a fair review.
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