My friend Shannon picked up this cool camera for me while he was in New York. This camera normally sells for $449.99 CDN around Ontario and around $399.95 in the US, but Shannon managed to find it for a truly amazing $200 USD. While I’m definitely not a big Kodak fan, I think this camera will bring some new versatility to my camera arsenal, which is growing by leaps and bounds this year, and my first impressions are that it’s actually pretty cool.
The Kodak V570 is the worlds first dual optical digital camera. This camera employs both a standard telephoto lens, with a 5X optical (3X digital) zoom capability, and an ultra-wide angle lens for tight places or huge scenery photos. The camera comes with a slew of modes for taking portraits, snow, text, fireworks, etc. Honestly I don’t really care about these modes as they just seem to lock certain ISO, exposure, and flash settings. However, behind all these boring modes I found a feature that made me forget about all that nonsense.
The V570 is capable of taking panoramic photos by stitching three images together using the cameras software. It takes on average about 20-30 seconds and the results are very good. Using the ultra-wide angle lens you can take a full 180° panoramic shot that is stitched perfectly by the software.
Before I give you my highlights I should tell you that I am only reviewing the camera. In fact I tossed out the docking station and software with the box. To get my images off the camera I just pull out the memory card and use a reader built-in on my laptop. Unfortunately, this means that the V570’s internal memory is useless to me.
First Impression Highlights
- Quick draw. This camera is on and taking pictures in under 3 seconds.
- On camera stitching for seamless panoramas in almost all conditions.
- The switching between lenses is as simple as zooming in and out, and is nearly seamless.
- Ability to zoom in and out while recording in video mode. Even changing between lenses.
- Records movies up to 640×480 in resolution.
- 2.5″ High resolution display.
- Feels good in your hands and makes a great matrix-y mechanical sound when the lens cover slides to the side.
Some things I’m not so sure about…
- Movies are recorded in Quicktime .MOV format.
- Low burst rate, a maximum of 4 images in any quality mode.
Some things I already hate…
- Respect my mode, bitch! Generally I have custom settings in my camera for shooting outdoors, they just happen to be the settings that I’ve built up over the years, but no matter what setting I want every time I turn on the V570 it defaults to auto. Where as my Canon SD10 starts in the mode you left it on. I much prefer Canons behaviour in this case.
For a full list of this cameras features and abilities, see the Kodak V570 Specifications page.
With any luck I’ll have some great photos on Sunday from pike fishing on Toronto Islands.
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