I’ve section hiked parts of the Pacific Crest Trail, did a trip through the Olympic National Forest, and have backpacked for years (starting in the Army in the 1970s) but more of my hiking experience is from day hikes in the Washington Cascades. I’ve climbed Washington State’s two highest mountains, but am not hugely into mountain climbing. I live in a rainy area, so rain doesn’t stop hiking plans.

My current base pack weight (no food or water) is about 19 pounds (8.6 kg). I’ve recently started using a hammock instead of a tent when my wife isn't along.

Specifications

Metal alloy body, colored black and silver
5 megapixels
CCD: 1/12.5 in (1/31/75 cm), 4:3 aspect ratio
Output Image size at maximum 5.0 megapixel setting: 2576 x 1932 pixels, for prints up to 20 × 30 in (50 × 75 cm)
Color display: 2.5 in (6.35 cm) color hybrid LCD, 960 x 240 (230 k) pixels
Taking lens: 23 mm fixed f/2.8; mechanical shutter and 2-step aperture, f/3.9-4.4
3X optical zoom
Dual Lens: ultra wide-angle lens (23 mm equiv.) plus 3X optical zoom lens (up to 117 mm equiv. telephoto)
Lens protection: built-in
Image storage: 32 MB internal memory, optional MMC or SD Card (card not included)
Image file format: JPEG
Capture Modes: Auto, Landscape, Macro, Video, various Scene modes
Scene modes provided: portrait, panorama stitch, sport, landscape, close-up, night portrait, night landscape, snow, beach, text, fireworks, flower, manner/museum, self-portrait, party, children, backlight, panning shot, candlelight, sunset, custom Dedicated buttons: power, shutter, still/SCN, movie, favorites, flash, delete, menu, review, and share
Electronic flash: max 10.1 ft (3.1 m)
Video: Quicktime (MPEG4 Codec)
Video Capture @ 30 fps
Battery: Kodak LiIon rechargeable
Communication with computer: USB 2.0 camera dock
Operating temperature: 32 to 104 F (0 - 40 C)
Camera body size: 4 in x 1.9 in x 0.8 in (10.1 cm x 4.9 cm x 2.0 cm)

Listed weight: 4.4 oz (125 g) without card or battery
Measured weight: same, 4.4 oz (125 g) without card or battery
As-used weight: 5.1 oz (144 g) including SD card and battery
Weight of spare battery: 0.6 oz (16 g)

Manufacturer’s website: www.kodak.com
MSRP: $349.95
Warranty: one year

Included with the camera:

camera itself
battery
carry strap
thin fabric carry bag for camera
charging/interface dock
AC power cord (used with dock or alone)
A/V cable to display images from camera to a television
CD with Kodak software

When this review was written, Kodak had the entire manual for the camera available online in their support area; specifications or other details not included here may be available there.

My V570 Experience

The V570 first became available in late January 2006; I got mine in June, and used it dayhiking and on multiple backpacking trips in July and August of 2006. I've taken mostly outdoor landscape pictures during daylight hours, but also some up-close floral shots, portraits, nighttime pictures, wildlife, and video.

I've used it at temperatures as high as the upper 80's F (29 - 31 C), and at elevations up to 7000 ft (2134 m) to include images of crossing a minor glacier, but probably not at temperatures lower than 40 - 45 F (4 - 7 C). I've used it in rain and sun, but mostly on calm sunny summer days. The longest continuous period I've used it on was the southern-most 150 mile stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail in the state of Washington.

Overview

This isn't intended as a "camera expert" review, rather a summary of how well this camera performs for an amateur photographer on backpacking trips. More rigorous and expert reviews of this camera can be found elsewhere via internet search.

I've never been satisfied with my previous digital cameras when backpacking in scenic areas. Looking at a wide panoramic view I could only take seemingly postage-stamp subsets of what I saw, and perhaps try to painstakingly use clumsy software to stitch those together on my computer later on. Mostly I didn't bother trying to do that.

The Kodak V570 has two lenses, including a built-in wide-angle lens; wide-angle is the default mode. This means that I just get (substantially) more of the scene. Better yet, Kodak has included on-camera panorama "stitching" software that works very well --- in panorama mode I can take two or three photos (themselves wider than on other cameras) and the camera stitches them together and saves them as a single image. So long as I'm reasonably close in aligning the photos when I snap them (using on-camera visual assistance), the stitched image comes out great, without use of a tripod. A three-picture panorama captures approximately a 180-degree view. I'm very happy with this.

Panorama image from the Pacific Crest Trail

The other lens is quite similar to that on a typical 5 megapixel camera, sporting a 3X optical zoom. With a brief pause, the camera automatically switches between lenses as it zooms in or out.

Switching "scene" modes is easy: push a button on top of the camera body to see various scene mode options, and the last one I used is remembered as the default for next time. Just push another button to select that, or toggle the button to select another. Push the first (on top) button to revert back to the standard/automatic setting. See specifications above for a list of the many scene mode options.

I like the fact that if I hold the camera sideways to take a "tall rather than wide" picture, the camera automatically turns the picture to save it in the right orientation.

How Fast?

It takes 2 - 3 seconds from when I push the power button until the camera is ready to take a picture; this seems pretty good to me for a digital camera. Push the button to take a picture, and it briefly displays the image taken (called a "quickview") before reverting to "ready to shoot" mode. That whole process takes just over 6 seconds. If there's a setting to shorten that process, I didn't find it. However, a little experimentation showed this to perhaps be misleading. While the "quickview" is being displayed, I can take another picture --- I just can't see my subject in the LCD! It appears that I can take a photo every second or so like this, again --- so long as I can do so without being able to see my subject on the LCD. It's possible that snapping pictures this quickly could impair image quality: the instructions aren't clear on this point, but the ready light flashes for over 5 seconds after I take a picture. In fact, if I nudge the "OK" toggle button while the quickview is displayed, I can short-circuit the quickview, so in that way I can sort of manage to take almost one picture per second. The documentation says almost nothing about this issue. In practice, I've just waited about 6 seconds between shots, i.e., until the quickview goes away and the ready light stops blinking.

I like the fact that I can individually turn off various sounds on the camera, as well as set the volume of sounds if I leave any on. There's also a "museum mode" that turns off both sounds and flash while in that mode.

Size Matters

Of course I like the small form factor; it's not heavy and it fits nicely in a pocket, or typically for me in a built-in pocket on the waistbelt of my backpack. Small form factor cameras typically suffer from a couple of issues, however. One that I've not had with the V570 is including my fingers or thumb in the picture; the lens(es) on this camera are right in the middle of the body, so this isn't a problem. It would be easy, however, to inadvertently cover part or all of the flash, though this hasn't happened with the way I tend to hold the camera.

The other typical issue is there are just less external controls on smaller cameras, and so one has to go to the menu more often than on a larger camera. My previous digital camera was of similar size, and this Kodak model seems to do a better job here. It does have a couple of buttons that I regard as useless ("favorites" and "share") --- I wish Kodak had allowed the user to reprogram these. But it includes a flash mode button, a simple toggle to go into macro or landscape modes, and another to quickly change from still picture to video mode, plus buttons for "review", "menu" and "delete". While small, the zoom in/out control works fine for me. And when I do go to the menu, the LCD screen is good and the menu layout is very logical.

The LCD on back is 2.5 in (6.35 cm) diagonally as advertised. That boils down to a screen that's 2 in (5 cm) wide by 1.5 in (3.8 cm) high. Decent sized in my opinion for a camera this size.

No Optical Viewfinder

The potential associated downside is that there's no optical viewfinder --- the user must rely on the LCD screen on back. I had two real concerns about this for my use in backpacking: power consumption (battery life), and use in bright sunlight. I'm pleased to report that neither of these has turned out to be a problem.

On a recent 10-day trip on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in Washington State I brought along a total of three batteries for this camera (original and two spares). Near the end of day four I ran out of battery power, after the equivalent of 267 pictures (191 images, of which 6 were two-picture panoramas and 35 were three-picture panoramas). These were almost all daylight shots; I think the flash might have gone off just a couple of times in total. But the LCD is of course almost always on when the camera is, and the panorama stitching likely takes additional power. Mitigating this, the unit will auto-shut-off after 60 seconds of no activity and by default will auto-dim the LCD after 10 seconds. Note also that I don't tend to review my photos while on a trip, which would certainly require some additional battery power.

After I changed batteries, I took the equivalent of another 140 pictures and still had power left in my second battery at the end of the trip. One minor annoyance was when the first battery did run out I had taken one or two out of three photos in a panorama; when the battery ran out, the camera auto-shutdown, and I lost the portions of the panorama I had taken.

I can't say for certain that bright sunlight isn't a factor on the LCD as shipped, because I bought an inexpensive "LCD screen protector for digital cameras" and applied this as soon as I got the camera. This after-market product advertises that it helps eliminate glare. Whether it helps, or the camera LCD just handles sunlight well on its own, I've not had any problems. Note that Kodak advertises "See your pictures with brightness and clarity -- even in direct sunlight". Of course it's easier to make out details when not in bright glare, but glare has just not been a problem, and I have pretty quickly adjusted to using the LCD.

Computer Interface

A minor concern with any new digital camera is the software and associated "interface" for getting pictures onto the computer. All things being equal, I will avoid using manufacturer's image software; my experience is that they all seem to want to lock the customer into their system. With my previous camera I avoided use of proprietary manufacturer's software by just removing the SD card and copying images directly from that. But a concern I had read about the Kodak V570 camera is that the little door covering the SD card has a flimsy rubber hinge --- might it eventually wear and break off?

The card door hinge indeed consists of two pretty thin flexible rubber-type straps. It's not a problem when closed, and it stays closed just fine. It turned out to not be an issue for me, as I was happy to find that Kodak's EasyShare software works easily and well. I'm not super happy to have yet another process always running on my PC in the background, but this hasn't caused any problems. I just poked around a bit until I figured out where Kodak stores the images on my computer and it's pretty easy to move those where I want them after download --- i.e., I just use their software to auto-download images and for no other purpose.

Thus I happily use the docking unit that comes with the camera. If I want to recharge the battery away from the computer, I can unplug the power cord from the dock and take just that part along --- the power cord will also connect directly to the camera. So for me, the process is simple: put the camera on the dock, push the button to download images, and leave the camera there until it's charged (three lights come on sequentially to indicate how the charging process is going).

Note that with included hardware the camera cannot be directly connected to a USB port; either the dock must be used, or a separate USB cable must be purchased from Kodak. This is a potential issue if the user travels with a laptop PC and doesn't want to carry along the dock unit. A more general-purpose alternative would be to buy a small SD card reader and carry that, though some laptop PC's will read an SD card directly.

Image quality

As with any modern camera in the hands of an amateur, the results vary. Including the V570, I've owned a total of four digital cameras, and this model does as well as any at making me look like a good photographer when all I do is just "push the button". I think some scenery situations are just inherently hard, such as facing towards the sun, or a mix of snow and dark background, dim subjects at a distance, etc. Controls to deal with at least some of these situations are available, and in particular some of the pre-set scene modes are an easy solution for the casual user. Ditto the option to control what gets focused on (auto, multi-focus, center-zone). As with so many digital cameras these days, the controls are there to get a little more refined if a person wants to learn how to use them.

I have no experience with printing pictures from this camera. Kodak sells a "printer dock" unit that makes it easy to print pictures; with rare exceptions, I personally have no interest in printed pictures --- I just view them on my computer screen. The panorama pictures are somewhat of a challenge to view on-screen as I either see only a part of the panorama, or it's significantly reduced in size and the top and bottom third of the screen aren't used. Maybe when I break down and buy an HD TV I'll have a better way to view these wide images!

The video mode works easily and well for such a small camera. In my limited testing it seems that the default video mode takes about one-half a megabyte of storage per second of video. Sounds are captured along with the video, and again, comes out well I think for what is fundamentally a small still-picture camera.

Barrel Distortion

One issue that's somewhat more of a factor than usual for this camera is what's called "barrel distortion", particularly when in the default wide-angle focus mode. Barrel Distortion is where the sides of the image seem to bow out. The camera menu includes a setting (turned on by default) to compensate to some degree for this, I believe at some minor expense to image sharpness. I think the amount of distortion I get will depend upon the nature of what I'm photographing, how close I am to it, and likely other factors. Of course I see more of this sort of distortion on a large panorama, but a three-picture panorama boils down to rendering a half-circle onto a flat plane, much like the problem of displaying a world map on a flat surface. What's surprising is how little distortion I notice in any of the large or wide images.

I had read that there is a sort of pause when zooming in and out and the active lens changes (from wide-angle to normal or vice-versa). This is true. My personal experience is that it's no big deal so long as I know it's going to happen --- just a brief pause. The "landscape mode" (infinity auto-focus) is unfortunately not available in the default widest-angle focus setting.

Potential Problem: stuck lens cap

About half-way into my 10-day PCT trip I started having problems with the built-in lens cover. This is a nearly 2 in (5 cm) thin metal disk that slides back and forth just inside the camera body to cover both lenses when powered down, or to uncover the lenses when powered up. I don't know if a little grit or something got inside somewhere or if the disk got pushed on and bent slightly, but when I tried to turn on the camera, the lens cover only slid partway open, and the camera shut itself back off again --- with the lens cover still partway open. With the power off I slid it all the way open and closed a few times and eventually got the camera to turn on, but then when I turned it back off, the same thing happened --- it partially closed, and shut down.

After pushing the lens cover open and closed a few more times with the power off the problem occurred less frequently. I tried bending the disk just a little outward and maybe that helped. It seems to work okay again now; I can no longer get this to happen. I'm not sure if it will recur again. I speculate that this inset-in-the-body built-in lens cap system isn't ideal for "field conditions". I should say that I haven't used a camera case for it. I've put it in a small zip-lock bag when I thought it might rain, but otherwise just carried it loose in the pouch built-in to my backpack waistbelt, certainly with the potential for various small particulates to get in (and, by the way, for it to get banged around a bit as I set the pack on the ground). In future I think I'll carry it in a (non-zip-lock) sandwich bag as a compromise between quick availability and trying to keep grit out. At any rate, this is a potential concern for a backpacker, but not one that has really stopped me thus far.

Wide or Up Close?

I should mention that the V570 represents a good camera choice for me. I have a bird-watcher friend who is less interested in wide shots, and more in having an excellent optical zoom. I don't mean to sound like a shill for Kodak, but note that another Kodak camera (model V610) in the same overall form factor also offers dual lenses, but does so in order to provide a 10X optical zoom. Maybe I can convince one of my hiking friends to get something like that, so I can do the wide-angled shots and someone else can get the far-off details.

Things I like:

wide-angle lens (as default setting)
excellent easy-to-use on-camera panorama stitching
small form factor and overall light weight
good battery life
controls and menu laid out logically, easy to use
pretty fast power-up
good sized LCD screen, that works well even in sunlight

Things I don't like:

I'd still prefer an optical viewfinder, though mostly due to ingrained habit
minor concern about the sticking lens cap
minor annoyance at Kodak-specific external buttons ("share", "favorite")
I'd like more/better on-camera buttons, such as one to switch to panorama mode
practical time between shots longer than I would like (limits are confusing, not documented)
In late 2006 an MSRP of $349.95 is a little on the spendy side compared to other 5 megapixel cameras

The things I don't like are mostly minor, and the things I do like represent significant advantages for anyone taking "great outdoor" scenes who want to capture more of what they see. I'm very pleased with this camera.

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