Kodak V570 Optics

Zoom
A very good 3x optical zoom range, with the benefit of a super wide angle setting.

The Kodak V570 zooms over the equivalent of a 39-117mm range in its normal operation, but features a dual-lens design that offers a 23mm Ultra Wide setting. While the 39-117mm range is fairly typical among consumer digital cameras, the 23mm Ultra Wide setting is a definite plus, offering a much larger maximum wide angle than most cameras in the V570's class would even attempt. Fine detail is a little soft overall at the Ultra Wide setting, and a small amount of coma distortion is visible in the top corners, but results are quite good. The 39mm setting also produced slightly soft details, though still pretty good results. Contrary to what you might expect, results are also quite good at the 4x digital telephoto setting. Details are a little soft, with lower resolution, but the 4x digital zoom image is actually quite usable.

Macro
A small macro area with good detail and high resolution. Flash had trouble up close though.

The Kodak V570's macro setting performed very well, capturing a small minimum area of only 1.79 x 1.34 inches (45 x 34 millimeters). Detail is strong and resolution high, with moderately blurring in the corners from the lens. (Most cameras have some softening in the corners in macro mode.) The flash throttled down a little too much, resulting in a hot spot in the top left corner, and dark shadow throughout the rest of the frame. (Plan on using external lighting for your closest macro shots with the V570.)

Distortion
Very high barrel distortion at Ultra Wide setting, though much less at the normal wide angle. Moderate pincushion at telephoto.

This is the tendency for the lens to bend straight lines outward (like a barrel--usually at wide angle) or inward (like a pincushion--usually at telephoto). The Kodak EasyShare V570's Ultra Wide 23mm lens showed about 1.4% barrel distortion without the Distortion Compensation feature enabled, which is very high. With Distortion Compensation enabled, however, barrel distortion decreased to about 0.7%, which is moderate among digital cameras, but still a little on the high side for me personally. At the normal wide angle setting (39mm), the lens showed 0.3% barrel distortion, which is actually quite low. At the telephoto end, the V570's 0.2% pincushion is moderate for digital cameras.

Chromatic aberration
Moderately high, small effect on images at edges.

Chromatic aberration is rather high at the 23mm Ultra Wide Angle lens setting, showing several pixels of very bright coloration on either side of the target lines. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.) At the 39mm wide angle setting, chromatic aberration is less, but still fairly bright. The effect almost disappears at full telephoto, and what pixels are visible are increased partly from strong blurring in the corners here.

Corner Sharpness
Strong blurring in the left and right corners of the frame, strongest effect in the lower right corner.

The Kodak V570 produced very soft corners in quite a few shots, with the most extreme softening at the 23mm Ultra Wide Angle setting and at full telephoto.

Coverage
Very good accuracy from the LCD monitor.

The V570's LCD monitor showed close to about 100 percent frame accuracy at the 23mm Ultra Wide Angle setting, as well as the 39mm and 117mm zoom settings.