Ughhh.... digital camera turnover remains ridiculous. About every 6 months, just about every camera company completely revamps its model lineup. Canon has pretty much revamped its entire lineup even though most of the cameras weren't even a year old! Canon has now spiced up their A series lineup with their new DIGIC III processor although the A710IS seems to be the flagship of the A series lineup (at least retail price wise), the A570IS is a serious contender for your bucks.

Canon seems to like releasing A series models by the threesome. The A550, A560, and A570 IS models were announced and released in the last month. The A570 IS is the most advanced of these model. They all boast 7.1 effective Megapixel sensors and the new DIGIC III processor. The A570 IS is the only one of the three to have Image Stabilization. However, the A570 IS lacks the 6x optical zoom of the A710 IS. The A550 also has a smaller LCD screen of 2 inches versus the other two models.

The A570 IS is impressive overall... although a has a few minor quibbles versus the A710IS. It compared quite favorably to the other Canon digicams I own. It falls a little off the mark against the A710 IS in some places but outperforms in many other catagories. Then again, in 6 months watch Canon address this with the A720 IS... we all know it's coming out.

Short Take

Digital camera technology has continued to evolve at a frightful pace... you can expect new camera models every 6 months... although it is an evolution not a revolution in digital camera technology. In Canon's case, there is one major feature included into one of their current camera series. The A series gets the DIGIC III processor now. The SD series latest models are their smallest ever.

The A series models have been sold as value models with flexibility in their manual controls. The A570 IS seems to be a cross between the SD800IS and the A710 IS models although leaning heavily towards the A710 IS in outward looks and resembling the SD800 internally. The odd part is that the A570 IS sells at a lower retail price than these two cameras.

Regardless, the A570 IS is a pocketable camera with a decent zoom range and a good amount of manual control. Like most Canon cameras, the pictures are of above average to excellent quality and the user interface is friendly. The use of 2 AA batteries for power is a plus in my book. Although the camera boasts ISO speeds up to 1600, there is significant noise at the ISO 800 setting and ISO 1600 is fairly unusable. ISO settings up to 400 were excellent. Having Image Stabilization in any camera is always a plus! The extent of manual control is pretty extensive for a point-and-shoot camera as well. The DIGIC III also improved the battery life by quite a bit and speeds up the process of capturing the photos. The face detection technology of the DIGIC III is excellent overall (it seems to base the detection of the face based on the eyes). There is improvement to the length of videos you can take although this remains a minor feature in my eyes because of the size of the files required to make a decent resolution movie of decent length.

The only obvious disadvantages were red eye (although there is now in camera red-eye removal), a somewhat slower zoom, and large movie file size. Like the A710 IS, you don't get the positionable LCD screen like in the S3, A630, or A640 either. The overall build quality is fairly solid but not like Canon's SD, G, or S series cameras. A continuing problem is that you have to buy a larger memory card and rechargeable batteries in addition to the camera package... although this isn't new to any camera manufacturer. A minor quibble is that the pictures seemed to be slightly grainier than the SD800 at ISO settings higher than 400.

Overall, the A570 IS offers very good value for your money in a fairly compact yet flexible photography package. It does well as an all purpose camera although there is a ton of competition at its price point. That being said, I would highly recommend this camera unless a large zoom is high on your priority list (I'm telling you, the A720IS will be out by the Fall 2007!).

Price

The A series used to be the value line while allowing a large amount of manual control. Unlike the initially expensive A710 IS, the A570 IS starts at $279! While there is alot of competition at this price point, the A570 IS ranks near the top of the list.

This price puts the A570 IS in fierce competition from cameras from all ranges and abilities. Even within the Canon lineup, the A550, A560, A640, A710 IS, SD700 IS, SD750, SD800 IS, SD1000, and S3 IS fall into the $250-$300 price range. So you really have to know what features are most important in purchasing your digital camera! Camera size, manual controls, picture quality, and extra features each will strongly impact what cameras you might choose.

If you're wondering how I paid $39 for my A570 IS, that is after a $240 credit at Crutchfield. The original price was $279 at Crutchfield.com (there is a promotion code that can be applied for first time Crutchfield customer for an extra $20. You can email me if you desire this code.) with no sales tax and free shipping and handling.

You can read my epinion The Art of Buying... Getting your money's worth! for some tips on saving a few bucks on electronics purchases.

Specs

The A570 IS has dimensions of 3.52 x 2.53 x 1.69 in. / 89.5 x 64.3 x 42.8mm and a weight of 6.17 oz./175 g without batteries. It is slightly smaller and lighter than the A710 IS (likely because of the shorter zoom). The camera might be pant pocketable but this will not fit in your shirt pocket. It will easily travel in your coat pocket. Like the rest of the A series models, the casing is mostly sturdy polycarbonate plastic and has a solid feel to it. The overall color looks like a silvery grey to me with a slightly darker grey handgrip area. Looking like most of the A series cameras, the A570 IS has the traditional film point-and-shoot camera look with a right handed grip. Part of the grip is rubberized but still small overall. Unless you have big hands, the grip shouldn't be a problem.

The A570 IS retains the nice sized 2.5 inch LCD display from the A710 IS... however, the LCD is still fairly low resolution compared to the competition. The LCD displays 115,000 pixels and automatically increases its brightness if the A570 detects that the surrounding ambient light to be low. Overall, the display is fairly easy to see in most lighting conditions as in "higher end" Canon cameras. Note that the LCD is fixed.

In the front of the A570 IS is the f/2.6-5.5 4x optical zoom lens with a focal length of 5.8-23.2mm (35mm equivalent is 35-140mm) with a removable ring (by depressing the button to the lower right of the lens) that allows attachment of the optional conversion lenses. To the right left of the lens is the three holes to the built-in mono microphone. The flash sits at the top right of the front of the camera and as you look left of the flash, you see the optical viewfinder and the AF-assist/self-timer lamp after that. Yes, the A series camera pretty much look the same.

On the top of the camera, we find the power button, mode dial, shutter button, and zoom lever around the shutter.

On the left side of the camera (if you're looking at the back), you have a rubber cover over the I/O ports. These include A/V out, USB 2.0 mini port, and the DC-in port. The right side holds only the eyelet for the strap. The bottom of the camera is the plastic tripod mount (not centered to the lens) and the cover to the battery area and SD card slot.

The back of the camera holds the 2.5 inch color LCD screen, the optical viewfinder, a switch between capture mode and display mode, a 4-way controller with the function/set button in the middle of that, display button, menu button, direct print button, and exposure compensation/delete button. The speaker is located on the back of the camera in the top right corner now.

Mode Dial

The mode dial gives you quick access to the more commonly used settings. These options include:

Auto Mode- The camera decides pretty much all the settings when taking the shot. Menu options mostly locked.

Program Mode- Like Auto but you have full access to menu options.

(Tv) Shutter priority mode- camera decides aperture and you decide shutter speed. This ranges from 15 to 1/2000 sec although this is further limited by the aperture the camera decides.

(Av) Aperture priority mode- camera decides shutter speed based on the aperture you determine. This ranges from F2.8 - F8.0

(M) Manual mode- You choose the shutter speed and aperture

Movie Mode- self explanatory

Stitch Assist- used to make panoramic shot from multiple photos

(SCN) Special Scene modes- Options here include Night scene, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, and Underwater.

Night Snapshot- used to be in Special Scene and Night scene was on the dial in previous models... mode is pretty self-explanatory

Landscape- self-explanatory

Portrait- self-explanatory

Kids & Pets - moved from Special Scene in previous models

Indoor - was part of special scene in prior models

Laundry List of Features

The Auto mode will likely be the most commonly used setting for the A570 IS. With the DIGIC III processor, the Auto mode does an overall excellent job of taking photos in most conditions. True to the history of A series models, you have access to quite a bit of manual controls for those of you who want to tweak their photos further.

The features include:

AutoFocus System: TTL autofocus
Metering: Evaluative (with control to incorporate facial brightness for Face Detection AF!), Center-weighted average, spot (Metering frame fixed to center)
White Balance: Auto, Preset (Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Underwater), Custom
ISO sensitivity: Auto, High ISO Auto, ISO 80/100/200/400/800/1600 equivalent (Standard Output Sensitivity. Recommended Exposure Index)
Exposure Control Method: Program AE, Manual
Exposure Compensation: /-2 stops in 1/3-stop increments
Built-in Flash Modes: Auto, Auto w/ Red-Eye Reduction, Flash On, Flash On w/ Red-Eye Reduction, Flash Off
Flash Exposure Compensation: /-2 stops in 1/3-stop increments
Maximum Aperture: f/2.6 (W) - f/5.5 (T)
Shooting Modes: As in the Mode Dial section
Self-Timer: Activates shutter after an approx. 2-sec./10-sec. delay, Custom
Continuous Shooting: approx. 1.7 fps (although can slow considerably with flash use and low battery power)

The A570 IS has most of the manual controls from the A710 IS

On Image Stabilization(IS)

From my experiences with the SD700 IS, S3 IS, A710 IS, and the SD800 IS, the image stabilization makes the camera more functional and stable for a greater array of shot than that would be otherwise possible without a tripod. I cannot imagine having a camera without Image Stabilization now. The Onboard Image Stabilization is a better feature than increasing the megapixels of a camera from 7 to 10. Canon's OIS acts by having internal sensors detect the movement of the camera and then compensating by shifting the lens element to stabilize the shot. The OIS allows you to use slower shutter speeds even up to three stops lower. It is extremely effective and a feature that you would definitely yearn for if you switched it off or used a camera without image stabilization.

The camera has 4 modes for the IS: Off, Continuous, Shoot Only, and Panning. There is a marked difference when the IS is on versus the IS being turned off. You will notice the difference in your zoom shots and even night shots with blurred images and a lack of detail in your photos with IS off and especially without use of a tripod.

Continuous mode has the IS on all the time. This puts a bigger drain on your batteries but tends to give you the most stable shots for most conditions. Shoot only activates the IS when the photo is taken. This saves a bit of battery power but I found it best if you have a fairly steady hand or have the camera on a tripod already. Panning mode is used mostly for making those large stitch panorama shots. It basically has the IS stabilize the vertical field and not the horizontal field.

Turning the OIS off should increase your battery life. I no longer test with OIS off since I find the OIS to be necessary to take the best photos (I don't use tripods or monopods much). The A570 IS uses the same OIS technology as Canon's last generation digital cameras.

DIGIC III

Basically, Canon put in a faster, more efficient, and more powerful processor. This gives the digital cameras equipped with it an extra boost. The A570 IS can evaluate scenes quicker, focus faster, and adapt its settings faster than the A710 can as per Canon. The A570 does have a faster capture time after depressing the shutter button than the A710. The A570 also reacts faster in low light situations compared to the A710.

The additional power of the DIGIC III allows the new Face Detection AF/AE. This nifty feature will quickly focus on the faces in your shot... if you depress the shutter half-way, it will find all the faces in the frame (and it actually does) and set the most suitable focus point. It works surprising well and gives close to flawless portrait and group shots about every time.

The DIGIC III is supposed to be more power efficient. The battery life of the A570 is slightly better than the A710 but I'll get into that later.

The iSAPS technology used in Canon's digital cameras has also improved every year. iSAPS is a Canon developed scene-recognition technology. It consists of a database of thousands of different photos to help the camera find points of focus, accuracy, exposure levels, and white balance. This database grow larger with each new model Canon adds to their lineup. The DIGIC III faster processing should allow cameras like the A570 to sift through this huge database at a faster rate leading to the improved speed of the camera.

Day to Day Photos

Photos were taken in downtown NYC, Hoboken, and Liberty State Park. Most of the Night photography was taken at downtown NYC and Hoboken.

The park photos were sharp, detailed, and noise free at ISO 80, 100, and 200 during the sunny day. Very mild noise at ISO 400 and noticable yet acceptable noise (mostly fine grained) at ISO 800 (your best prints at 4x6 and 5x7 sized photos). Note that ISO 800 on the A570 is better than that of the A710. Shots at ISO 1600 were good for small photos at best... given the large amount of noise in the photos. Shots using ISO 80 to 400 could be enlarged with minimal to no loss of picture clarity or quality. Shots compared favorably to my SD800 IS and the A710 IS although it seemed that the A570IS had ever so slightly more noise than the SD800 IS. Colors were pretty accurate and well saturated maybe even slightly over saturated. The A570 IS seems to trend towards cool tones rather than warmer tones... blues and darker colors seemed to be slightly more emphasized than reds and yellows. There was good color contrast in all the daylight and medium light conditions. Image stabilization helped with all of my photos. When enlarging the photos, the A570 IS still had a bit of purple fringing but given the large number of megapixel for such a small sensor... it is expected to some degree. The purple fringing is no worse than the SD800 IS or A710 IS.

Portrait shots are where the A570 IS with the DIGIC III processor really shined. Every portrait shot was pristine in auto mode. The face detection AF worked without a hitch.

The only hitch was the speed of the zoom. It seemed a bit slow at times. I didn't notice it with freshly charged batteries but it seemed to slow down when I had drained the batteries to some degree (I would approximate at 50% power or less). I haven't not experienced this with other Canon cameras using AA batteries. It was a bit odd. Again this is a minor quibble as I think most people will not notice this.

The A570 showed a little bit of softness in the corners at the telephoto range of the zoom. I did not notice any distortion in any of the shots. Overall, the camera performed great.

Night Shots

Like the SD800, you want to half-depress the shutter so the camera can set the focus for the best possible shot in low light and dark situations. Remember that halfway depressing the shutter allows utilization of the face detection AF/AE which greatly improves your low light and night shots on the A570 as in all DIGIC III equiped Canon cameras!

Red eye issues were seen to a smaller extent than in the A710 IS and much less than the SD800... these were corrected with the use of the HF-DC1 external slave flash accessory. Even using red eye reduction, there is still a notable amount of red eye in low light and night portrait and group shots without the HF-DC1 flash unit. The flash range of the A570 is below average to me, so I wouldn't expect much after 12 feet (at best) as my shots of subjects past that were poorly illuminated by the built in flash. Note that the range decreases if the drained a fair amount (I would say the flash range notably decreases at 25% or less power). However, within the built-in flash range, photographed subjects had excellent sharpness, color accuracy, and color reproduction. The HF-DC1 accessory flash extended the A570's range to about 30 feet while maintaining the excellent photo quality.

Since I had shots of NYC skyline from Castle Point on the Hudson in Hoboken at night from my S3, SD700, and S800. I went back and used the same background for my night A570 shots as well as portrait and group shots of friends. Shots in downtown NYC fared about the same. The shots of the NYC skyline were good under the auto settings under the wide angle range of the zoom. There was a bit more purple fringing/chromatic aberration noted from the SD700 shots but not worse than the S3, A710, or SD800 in my opinion especially with brightly lit windows against the dark face of buildings. Using ISO modes under 200 introduced very little noise but it was more than the SD700 shots. ISO 400 had a bit more noise but was acceptable for 5x7 and some shots were good for 8x10. ISO 800 performed better in some respects and worse in others than ISO 800 shots of the S3 and SD700 but were still rather noisy and at best usable for a small print (noise levels seems to be on the same level on the SD800 maybe worse). ISO 1600 was too unrefined and required PC postprocessing before printing... even then the shots were not that great. The image stabilization helped greatly with night photos especially at the maximum telephoto range of the zoom at night without a tripod (although using a tripod would be ideal!). Pictures in this setting had occassional blurring on the auto setting and maximum telephoto range... seemed equivalent to the A710 at similar settings.

When taking portrait or group shots, the A570 performed like the SD800. It really shines especially if you depress the shutter halfway to activate the face detection AF/AE. Keeping lower ISO settings and within the flash range yielded better and clearer results than the A710. Exposure was very balanced but I miss the true wide angle lens from the SD800.

Any shots under low light and dark conditions of fast motion often were blurred if no adequate light source was nearby. It was difficult to use ISO settings above 800 since significant noise was introduced and there was significant loss of detail and fading of colors. Overall, low light and dark conditions were above average for any digital camera.

I should note that it was much faster to compose night shots with the A570 compared to a camera with an EVF like the S3 due to the optical viewfinder. I would say the optical viewfinder gave 85% framing of your shots. There is no diopter adjustment for the optical viewfinder.

The flash has decent range. Canon rates it as:

Normal: 1.5-11.0 ft./45cm-3.5m (W), 1.5-7.2 ft./45cm-2.2m (T)
Macro: 1-1.5 ft./30-45cm (W-M) (when sensitivity is set to ISO Auto)

Note that the flash recycle time gets longer as you drain the batteries of power. This is probably about average for cameras in this category. It was best for portrait and group photos to be within 10 feet of your subjects. Range is greatly increased with the HF-DC1 slave flash unit. The A570 IS has rather severe red eye issues although there is in camera red-eye removal with the DIGIC III processors. The red-eye reduction does a decent although not great job. Again, use of the HF-DC1 slave flash accessory reduced the red eye problems.

Movie Mode

Due to the DIGIC III processor, the A570 has a more powerful and overall flexible movie capture mode that surpasses previous Canon digital cameras with a movie record feature. You can not record movies up to a file size of 4GB which allows VGA movies at 30 frames/sec up to 30 minutes in size. It will not replace your camcorder for long events but it does give you a reasonable option now. Only the S3 has a potentially better movie record mode (the S3 can record in stereo sound but file size is limited to 1GB max. A570 records in mono only but can make longer VGA movies). To record in VGA mode, you must use a high speed SD card. You can still stitch together 4GB files after the fact with the included Canon software to make much longer movies (and huge file sizes to boot... which is why a camcorder will still be the better option for movie enthusiasts.). Note that a blank DVD has a capacity of around 4.5GB, so your movie from a SD800 equals a 30-minute DVD.

You can also pick between 640x480 and 320x240 for movie image size and between 30 or 15 frames per second. You also can record at 60 fps at 320x240 pixels for up to a 1 minute in length. There is an option for 160x120 pixels at 15 fps for up to 3 minutes. Again, at 640x480 resolution at 30fps with a high speed SD card over 1GB in size, you get 7-8 minutes of video per 1GB.

The movies overall remain crisp and clear. They have excellent quality although you cannot use the optical zoom like in the S3. You do have access to the My Color features in movie record mode and you can delete from the ends of the movie (but not in the middle) on the A570 itself. There is a built in speaker to listen to your playback and the sound output is decent.

I still wish Canon could utilize a better video compression scheme so you can record longer movies into the limited card space. 4GB for 30 minutes of VGA video is a steep price to pay. This really limits the movie mode of the A570.

On the Viewfinder

The A570 has an optical viewfinder which frames about 85% of the scene. The LCD frames 99%... so the LCD will give a more accurate representation of the picture you're taking. However, I still like the optical viewfinder since it gives me a better depth of field than a LCD or EVF would do.

Battery Life

The A570 IS utilizes 2 AA batteries for power. With 2 AA NiMH 2500mA batteries, Canon claims about 400 shots based on the CIPA standard or 660 minutes of playback time. Note that Canon gives you two AA alkaline batteries. You have to purchase your own rechargable batteries to use with the A570. Note that a user-replacable CR1220 lithium battery keeps the time, date, and camera settings when you change the AA batteries.

I got about 300 shots with about 25% of them using the flash on a fully charged set of Duracell branded 2500mA NiMH AA. The OIS was set to continuous, the LCD was always on, and the majority of photos were taken on Auto mode. The uptime included reviewing all shot photos at least once and some movie recording and reviewing.

This battery set was purchased from BJ's. $19.99 for an overnight wall charger, 6 AA 2500mAh batteries, and 2 AAA 1000mAh batteries for the price.

Memory and Storage

The A570 IS uses SD (Secure Digital), SDHC, and MMC (MultiMedia Card) cards for storage. The SD card is the more ubiquitous standard and has larger storage capacities available as well as speed over standard MMC. SDHC is similar to SD in size and design although with much faster access times and starting with higher storage capacities... also much more expensive than a similarly sized SD card. Canon still includes a pathetic 16MB card in the package so you need to add the price of a much larger SD card to your purchase price (I would suggest at least a 2 GB high speed card and I would highly recommend a high speed 4 GB if you can afford it).

I used a SanDisk Ultra II 2GB SD card with the camera. Don't forget that to use the higher quality movie modes you need a high speed SD card... The camera also takes advantage of the faster read and write speeds of a better SD card especially in continuous shot modes and the movie modes.

For reference, a 1GB card should hold about 300 photos taken at 3072x2304 (i.e. 7.1MP images) at the highest quality setting (Super Fine). Each shot is approximately 3MB a pop. All shots are saved as JPGs. Movies are discussed in that section.

The A570 has 6 image file size options: large (3072x2304), widescreen (3072x1728), medium1 (2592x1944), medium2 (2048x1536), medium3 (1600x1200), and small (640x480). There are three picture quality settings which are normal, fine, and super fine.

In the Box

In the box are several printed manuals including the basic manual, an advanced manual, direct printing manual, and software manuals. You also get a crappy 16MB SD card, 2 AA alkaline batteries, wrist strap, short USB 2.0-to-miniUSB cable, stereo A/V output cable, and CD-ROM with Canon's Digital Camera Solutions software.

When buying the A570, you have to buy a high speed SD card (2GB cards should be running around $20-30 for a high speed branded name product... cheaper if a no name brand) and 4 2300-2500mAh NiMH AA batteries with a charger (if you take alot of photos in a day, buy at least 2 sets of NiMH AA batteries. Don't buy NiCd AA batteries). I personally would recommend a small camera pouch.

Accessories

Canon offers quite a few accessories for the A570. These include the Wide-Angle lens, Telephoto lens, Close-Up lens, Conversion lens adapter/lens hood (needed to connect any of the other lenses as well as 58mm lens filters), and the external slave flash HF-DC1 (which I've reviewed on epinions). There is also an AC adapter and Canon's own NiMH battery kit (a rip off at $45... just buy these locally like from Target or Wal-Mart).

Out of these official Canon accessories, the External Slave Flash is the most useful since it greatly extends the flash range of the A570 and helps with the redeye problems I have been seeing with the built in flash. There is no hot shoe on the A570. Also note that the HF-DC1 does not replace the built-in flash of the A570 but complements it and greatly extends your flash range (hence the slave flash designation)... it can be set to go off as the main flash goes off.

In The End

The Canon A570 remains a versatile camera that should suit most people's needs especially at a fairly low price point. The A570 IS absolutely should remain high on your camera purchase list since it covers so many bases and has relatively few weak points. I consider this a cheap and reliable bridge camera from Point-and-Shoot digital cameras to DSLRs. Unless you require a longer zoom or must have the wide-angle available in camera, I highly recommend this camera without any reservations.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 39
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use