Color (6.31)
Kodak EasyShare digital cameras come with a Kodak Color Science Chip that usually does well during testing. Not all Kodak cameras get the same score, however, because of differences in lenses and CCDs. To see how the V570’s Retina technology collaborates with the Kodak Color Science Chip, we shot several photos of an industry standard GretagMacbeth color chart. We tested the V570 in the automatic white balance mode, as well as the tungsten mode, since we use tungsten lights in our studio and there is no custom white balance setting on the camera. The tungsten mode produced far better results. We imported the camera’s rendering of the GretagMacbeth color chart into Imatest imaging software, which then compared the V570’s colors to the original colors of the chart.
The chart below was output by Imatest, with the original color in the inner vertical rectangle of each tile and the camera’s reproduction of that same color on the outer portion of each square. The inner square shows the corrected ideal, adjusted for luminance.
The colors of the 24 tiles of the original GretagMacbeth chart are shown below in the squares; these are the ideal colors that digital cameras should produce. The circles in the graph show the Kodak EasyShare V570’s actual reproduction of each color. The line connecting these shapes ideally shouldn’t exist, as it represents the degree of error.
The Kodak EasyShare V570 earned a 6.31 overall color score, which is decent but not as impressive as the scores from some of its EasyShare counterparts. The camera over-saturated by 19.2 percent in the tungsten white balance mode and 24.8 percent in the automatic white balance mode. The mean color error (using the tungsten white balance) was 10.3, which isn’t very good but still lower than the 13.5 error that the auto white balance mode generated.
Still Life
Below is a shot of our still life scene, captured with the Kodak EasyShare V570.
Click on the image above to view a full resolution version (CAUTION: the linked file is very large)
Resolution / Sharpness (1.78)
The Kodak EasyShare V570 has not one, but two image sensors. If the old adage of “the more, the better” is true, the V570 should perform very well on the resolution test. The dual-CCD digital camera has 5 effective megapixels from its total of 5.36. Each CCD measures a standard 1/2.5 inches. To see just how sensitive these CCDs are, we shot several images of an industry standard 12233 resolution chart. After varying the camera settings, we uploaded the files into Imatest and determined the best results the camera was capable of producing. The image below shows the best results from the V570.
Click on the res chart above to view the full size version
These results were garnered from a shot that used an f/4.3 aperture and a 19.2mm focal length. Imatest yielded the resolution results in terms of line widths per picture height (lw/ph). Traditional analog cameras are tested in terms of line pairs per picture height (lp/ph), but that measurement assumes a constant width of line, which is not compatible with the varying sizes of different digital imaging sensors. Therefore, we report the result in line pairs, which can be applicable regardless of sensor size.
This dual lens digital camera has a sensor behind each lens. The sensor behind the top 3x optical zoom lens read 1157 lw/ph horizontally in the frame and 830.1 lw/ph vertically. There was 4.8 percent over-sharpening horizontally and 17.4 percent under-sharpening vertically. The bottom ultra wide lens resolved 1131 lw/ph horizontally and 1098 lw/ph vertically. The V570 imposes in-camera sharpening much stronger in the vertical direction, but neither of the two lenses is impressively sharp.
Noise – Auto ISO (4.2)
The Kodak EasyShare V570 is designed for consumers who want automatic features, so its automatic ISO should work well – in theory. The V570’s automatic ISO ranges from 64-160, so noise should remain fairly low although capturing photos using the Auto ISO setting in low light conditions could be next to impossible. Unfortunately, the visible noise in the recorded frame was nearly parallel to the noise garnered in our manual ISO test at ISO 160. Therefore, given the abundance of controlled light under which the camera was tested, the V570 either metered incorrectly or erred on the side of caution and gave focus the priority by ensuring the fastest shutter speed was used. Either way, the Kodak V570 received a 4.2 overall automatic ISO noise score, which is decent but not spectacular.
Noise – Manual ISO (6.29)
The manual ISO range is somewhat longer at 64-400 with an 800 setting only available in the tiny 1.8 megapixel image size. We tested the noise levels at the ISO 64, 100, 200, and 400 settings and depict it on the chart below. The horizontal axis shows the ISO settings and the V570’s produced noise sits on the vertical axis.
The noise at the lowest ISO setting was more than average compared to ISO 64 settings on other point-and-shoot cameras, but the noise rose at a consistent level. The V570 returned an overall manual ISO noise score of 6.29, which is much better than most point-and-shoot models.
Low Light Performance (4.0)
The Kodak EasyShare V570 doesn’t have high ISO settings (except at reduced resolution) or manual control of shutter speed and aperture, so its potential performance in low light is questionable. To test our speculations, we exposed the V570 to four diminishing light levels of 60, 30, 15, and 5 lux using the camera’s night scene mode. Users often shoot at 60 lux, which is a fairly common light level at a restaurant or club. 30 lux is the light emitted from a single 40-watt bulb. 15 and 5 lux are quite dark, but help us determine the limitations of the image sensors.
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Low Light Tests
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60 Lux
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30 Lux
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15 Lux
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5 Lux
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In the night scene mode, the shutter seemed to open and stay open for two seconds only. The result is terrible colors that take on an orange hue and an overall dark look. Much of this color error is attributed to the lack of a custom white balance setting. The V570’s Auto and Tungsten white balance settings had difficulty calibrating the camera to our photographic tungsten lamps.
Illumination in the sequence remains fairly constant until 15 lux, where it takes a dive into the darkness. The images are somewhat noisy in the night scene mode, but not nearly as much as when shot in the auto mode. The auto mode left images underexposed and unusable, so we reported the night scene mode results instead. The downfall: the white balance cannot be adjusted in the night scene mode. In low light, expect discolored and heavily saturated tones.
Speed / Timing
Start-up to First Shot (8.31)
Many compact point-and-shoots take about 2 seconds to start up, so the Kodak EasyShare V570’s 1.69-second start-up time is relatively impressive for its styling.
Shot to Shot (9.24)
When the continuous shooting mode is selected, the V570 can take 4 frames at an average pace of 0.46 seconds. This is decent, but the time it took to write those images to the memory was awful. It took a full 14 seconds to write the images to the card. The camera can take another shot after 7 seconds while it’s still writing, but this only lengthens the amount of waiting time until those pictures are written.
Shutter to Shot (7.4)
When the shutter release button is pushed halfway and the focus is already locked, it takes the Kodak V570 0.08 seconds to grab a shot. The auto focus system makes the process take a bit longer. It takes the camera about 0.8 seconds to take a picture when not already in focus.
