A good beginner's camera - the Canon PowerShot A570 IS 7-megapixel digital camera

I've been hemming and hawing on upgrading from the point and shoot camera that I currently have to something with greater resolution and more options.  As part of that quest I was able to get my hands on my good friend's Canon PowerShot A570 IS 7.1 mega pixel digital camera for several weeks to try it out.  I was also able to get her up to speed with the camera so that she could get the most out of it as possible before and after, since she had gotten the A570 last year, but continued to use her older Kodak digital except for ocassionally using this one.

My first impression of the A570 was that it didn't look all that different from the PowerShot A75 I had gotten my partner several years ago.  It was a bit more compact and lightweight, but overall the PowerShot has retained the same shape and general size as the line has evolved.   That said, the number of features and functions has changed dramatically except for the one thing I always hated about our A75, which is still present with the A570.  There is a significant shutter lag for most photos, especially in low-light conditions.

A570 Basics

What I like about the A570 is that it's one of those digital cameras you can unpack, put the batteries and memory card in and be taking photos within a few minutes.  If you never want to learn about all the functions and abilities of the camera and just take photos, you can.  Just turn the function dial to auto and you're good to go.

Even if you're just going to be taking photos though, I'd suggest dipping into the manual at least a little bit.  You can learn about the various other picture taking modes on the A570, it's manual adjustment functions, the options available through the menu system and learn about its connectivity options to get your photos from the camera to your computer.

Size and Shape
The A570 is just over 3 ½ inches in length, around 2 ½ inches in height and almost 1 ¾ inches in depth.  When you've got the two AA batteries in the camera, it weighs in at about 8 ounces.  

This is not a small digital camera.  It's not really small enough  to slip into your pocket and even if you can fit it in there, it's somewhat bulky and isn't the most comfortable thing to carry around that way.  If you are looking for a small, very lightweight camera, this really isn't it.

For me, it's a bit bigger and bulkier than my current digital camera, but it wasn't too bad to carry around  since I just generally kept it in a case when I was out hiking or skiing with it.  For more social situations it is a bit of a pain to carry around, so I'd end up carrying it in my coat pocket most of the time.

Resolution
The A570 offers 7.1 mega pixels of resolution.  That's more than good enough for everyday printing, emailing photos and images for the web.  It's fine for small prints and even at 8x10 you shouldn't have any trouble making prints.  I've used my photos from the A570 on the web and for some prints and I haven't had any problems, even with the larger 8x10 prints.

If you don't need the high resolution photos, the camera lets you set various sized images at different resolutions.  You can go from 640x480 images up to the full size 3072x2304 images.  There's also an option for widescreen sized photos (3072x1728) and post card photos (1600x1200).  On each of those setting you can choose from three different levels of resolution.  There's normal, fine and superfine.  

I generally kept my settings on the large photos at the superfine resolution since I use my photos for prints and for web use and I never know when I might want a higher resolution photo.

Memory
The A570 uses the SD Memory card system which lets you get memory cards up to several gigabytes in size.  Depending on  the image size and resolution and the size of your memory card, the A570 can take a number of photos.    With the 2 gigabyte SD card that I have, I was able to get just over 600 of the large, superfine images.  The number of images you can store on a card increase as you reduce resolution and photo size.

Images & Video
When you take photos with the A570, they are saved in the jpeg format.  There's no ability to save the photos in the RAW format.

You can also take videos (with sound) on the A570.  Those are saved in the AVI format.

Batteries and Battery Life
You'll have to get yourself a set of rechargeable AA batteries when you get this camera since it does take two AA batteries and eats through them fairly quickly.  With the standard alkaline batteries I got around a 100 photos.  The rechargeable batteries did a bit better then this with around 300 or so photos.  It's hard to give an exact amount of battery life because it depends a lot on how you use the camera.  The LCD screen uses power, as does adjusting settings and stuff like that.  So depending on how you use the camera, you can squeeze out more photos.  For me, I like the LCD screen for composing photos, so my averages were with the LCD screen on for the most part, but I wasn't adjusting settings too often.

That's enough for a standard day trip and I do like the fact that the camera takes the standard AA batteries.  That means if you forget your charger or just don't have the ability to charge, you can always pick up standard batteries and get by with them.

Zoom
The A570 camera lets you zoom in four times optically which is what really matters when it comes to a zoom.  There's also a 4x digital zoom, but that reduces the quality of your final photograph.  The optical quality of the lens is also quite good, I didn't notice any real distortions in the photos.  My only real complaint was that the zooming process was a bit slow.  I did appreciate the fact that image quality was maintained throughout the zooming and that the fully zoomed in photos I took were quite clear and crisp.

Focusing
This is the first camera I've used that has automatic face-detection and an optical image stabilizer system in addition to the standard auto-focus.  The difference is noticeable in photos.  It's easy to make sure that people's faces are in focus.  Just about every photo I took of people, their face is in focus thanks to the facial detection system.  The image stabilizer is also very helpful for photos that would otherwise be streaked out due to the motion.  It's not perfect, but it does make a difference.  The auto-focus in general does a good job.  Most of my photos came out crisp and clear and I haven't run across as many blurry photos as I have with other cameras.

LCD Screen
In addition to the standard viewfinder, the A570 has a 2 ½ inch color LCD screen that is significantly brighter and clearer than screens I've have on my other cameras.  It makes it very easy to set up a photograph, review settings and access other functions in the menu system.

Picture Taking Modes, Exposure and White Balance
99% of the photos I've been taking with the A570 have been in the "auto" exposure/picture taking mode.  This setting has the camera take care of everything for you, from the focus, the ISO, the flash and the exposure.  Just find the photo you want and push the shutter button and the A570 takes it from there.

However beyond that, there are a number of different modes that help you take photographs in different kinds of conditions.  There's a portrait option, a landscape option, night scenes, snow, beach, fireworks, underwater, indoor and kids and pets.  Some of those options are accessible from a secondary menu on the camera - you choose the "SCN" function and then on the LCD screen, choose the situation you're shooting in.  These various shooting modes are helpful, especially the nighttime and the portrait settings.  They let you tailor your photos to your situation without having to go in and modify settings manually.  If you do want to go in and manually adjust settings though, you can.  You can set functions that let you modify one setting such as aperture or you can handle all settings manually.  I didn't really use these functions because I didn't find them as easy to use as the manual functions say on my digital SLR camera.  In addition when I'm using a point-and-shoot camera like this, I'm not really looking to modify settings manually, I want a camera that's going to do most of the work for me.  So in this case, it's not something I really want, but for some people, they might enjoy fiddling with the settings manually and seeing how they can change their photographs.

In addition to letting the ISO being set automatically or kept high, you can manually adjust your ISO from between 80 to 1600.  9 times out of 10 I just let the auto settings pick this, but from time to time, especially in low light situations, it was useful to go in and adjust the ISO manually so I could get a better picture.

You can also adjust the white balance on the camera if you want to take it out of auto mode.  There's a custom mode in addition to presets for daylight, clouds, tungsten and fluorescent lighting and underwater conditions.

Flash
There's a built-in flash on the A570 (what camera doesn't have a built-in flash nowadays?).   You can adjust the way the flash works with several different pre-sets that include full auto, auto with red-eye reduction, fill flash and always having the flash off.  I tended to just use the auto-flash setting and didn't bother with the red-eye.  For the vast majority of my photos it worked fine and it reduced the amount of battery juice the flash was using.  The fill flash also came in handy from time to time.

Video
The A570 lets you take 640x480 video at 30 frames per second with sound.  This results in a decent quality video.  It's perfect for those situations where you just want to capture some quick video.  I used it from time to time and subsequently posted the videos on the web without any trouble.  I like that it has sound too.  My current point-and-shoot camera takes video, but without sound, so the A570 was a nice change in that regard.

In the box...
In addition to the A570 itself, when you'll get a wrist strap that attaches to the camera, 2 AA batteries, a USB cable, an AV cable, a 16 megabyte SD card and a CD with Canon photo software and drivers.

I honestly don't know why they even bother with a 16 megabyte SD card.  It can hold like 4 full sized images and barely any video.  Unless you are taking photos at the lowest possible resolution, you're going to need a bigger card.

The USB cable lets you hook the camera up to your computer to download photos and the AV cable lets you connect to a TV or a monitor so you can show off your photos that way.

Setting up and using the A570

There's really not too much to do here.  Put the wrist strap on the camera, put the batteries and the memory card in, turn the camera on, switch it to auto mode and you're ready to start taking photos.  The installation of the Canon software on the computer is easy too.  You get a couple of different Canon software programs for image downloading and editing.

The camera is easy to use.  I was taking photos right away and I've been able to show my friend how to the use the camera quickly and easily (and she's not exactly a digital camera whiz).  It starts up fairly quickly, it's easy to compose photos on the LCD and then just take the photo.

Downloading the photos can either be done via the USB cord and software or by simply removing the SD card and using a memory card reading device.  That's my preferred method of transferring the files since my laptop has an SD slot and my desktop has a card reader too.  However my friend likes to use the USB cord since she doesn't have a reader.  In that case, setting it up and using it has been very easy - just connect the camera to the computer, turn it on and begin the transfer.

Like most cameras I've run across the A570 works best in bright, natural light conditions and does the poorest in low light situations.  In some lower light situations I ended up just not taking photos because the camera was having trouble focusing and was practically unable to take the photo.  That said, for my outdoor photos and for indoor photos in brighter situations, I didn't have any problem with the camera and the quality of the photographs rivaled my digital SLR camera.

Shutter Lag

I really only have one complaint with this camera and I would have thought it would have been fixed by now.  Our A75 has a horrible shutter lag.  You depress the shutter button and seemingly seconds later the photo is taken.  This results in plenty of photos where the person or the thing we were trying to photograph has moved on.  Well, with the A570 this problem is still there.  Sure, it's not quite as bad as the older PowerShot that I have, but it's very noticeable and it's a consistent pain when you are taking photos, especially in low-light conditions where the shutter lag is even longer.

So if you want a digital point-and-shoot camera without much shutter lag, I don't think this is the camera for you.  I know it bothers us with the A75 and I would get frustrated from time to time with the A570 because I'd go to take a picture and people would move because the shutter lag was so long.

Final Thoughts

I was impressed with the quality of the photographs from the A570.  They generally came out very clear and crisp with good colors.  The camera did great in outdoor situations and brightly lit indoor situations.  Picture quality did tend to drop off though with photos in low-light situations unless the flash was able to fill in the scene.  For some low-light situations though, I wasn't even able to take a photo because the camera wasn't able to focus or set its exposure.

I could live with the low light problems since just about every camera has them, but the problem that really bothers me is the amount of shutter lag for most photographs.  The camera suffers from a significant shutter lag.  I wouldn't say it's the longest I've seen, but it's long enough that quite a few of my photos end up ruined because of movement after I've pressed the shutter button.  I would have thought Canon would have fixed a problem like this over time since the A75 we have from several years back has the same exact problem with shutter lag.

I also like how user-friendly the A570.  It's a great camera for someone not all that familiar with a digital camera.  You can be taking photos within a few minutes of opening it and the majority of the features are easily accessible should you want to go beyond the simple "auto" functions.  Not only that, but if you do want to really explore, there are a number of additional functions and features that will let you expand your photography horizons.

Would I buy this camera?  No, the shutter lag problem is just too much for me.  When we bought the A75 and realized it, we had said we'd never get a camera with a lag that's that bad.  I would have thought it would be reduced by now, but it hasn't really been and it drives me crazy when I'm taking photos of people because I end up getting photos of people moving since they think the photo has already been taken.  It's especially bothersome with pet photos since it's so hard to get them to stand still.

If the shutter lag problem doesn't bother you though, or you at least know it's there, this is a solid camera.  I took it hiking, skiing and used it around the house and out in social situations without any problems.  The body is sturdy, the camera, while slightly bulky, isn't that big or heavy, it's easy to use, and the overall photo quality is excellent.

So if you are looking for a higher resolution digital camera that's easy to use and takes good photos and you can live with some shutter lag, this isn't a bad choice.  I just know that over time the shutter lag would drive me crazy on this camera, hence only the three-star rating.  If they fixed that, this would easily be a 4-star camera.