Compact

The body of the A570 IS is made from plastic, with some shiny metal trims to improve its appearance. The lens retracts into the camera body, with an automatic cover to protect the front element. There's a moulded grip that will suit users with small hands and is secure enough to allow the camera to be operated with one hand. No thumb rest is provided on the rear panel and your thumb tends to cover the speaker grille when the camera is in use.

Most of the rear panel is covered by the LCD but the viewfinder above it is large enough to be usable and the control buttons are straightforward to use. A slider on the top left corner selects between shooting and playback modes and the Display button lets you choose between standard (no shooting data), detailed (with data) and off settings for shooting and playback modes. The battery/card cover is a bit flimsy and can be difficult to close.

The Display Overlay setting in the Shooting Menu allows you to overlay on the LCD either a set of grid lines or a 3:2 guide that outlines the area that will be printable on 15 x 10 cm paper. Both overlays can be applied together, if you wish. A histogram can be called up in playback mode to check exposure levels. Photographers looking to extend the camera's capabilities can select from a range of optional accessories that includes wide and tele converter lenses, a close-up lens, rechargeable batteries and power adapters and high-capacity memory cards. 

Performance
In many respects, the test camera's performance was quite impressive. Pictures taken in bright outdoor lighting had the usual blocked highlights but shadows were adequately recorded and image colours looked realistic. Colour saturation was, typically, somewhat elevated, although not excessively so. Edge-to-edge sharpness was excellent and there was little evidence of coloured fringing in outdoor shots. Noise was well controlled up to ISO 200 and thereafter became progressively more visible until shots taken at ISO 1600 were too noisy-affected to be really usable.

Imatest revealed resolution to be slightly below expectations but there was little difference in resolution between the centre and edge of the frame. Resolution remained relatively constant from ISO 80 to ISO 800 but deteriorated markedly at ISO 1600. However, high levels of under-sharpening left some test shots looking quite soft. Lateral chromatic aberration was generally low.

Digital zoom shots were outstanding for the camera's resolution and zoom range. Close-ups were also quite impressive, thanks to a macro focus range that extends down to 5 cm. Flash performance was better than average as the camera produced well-balanced images at all ISO settings from 100 to 1600 and only slight under-exposure at ISO 80.

White balance performance was slightly better than many compact digicams. The auto setting was unable to remove the orange cast of incandescent lighting but produced good results with fluorescent lighting. The pre-sets and manual measurement controls delivered excellent results with both lighting types.

Response times were unexceptional. When the flash was turned off, the camera took just under two seconds to power up and record a shot and the same to process the image and display it on the LCD. With flash, shot-to-shot times averaged approximately five seconds. We measured an average capture lag of 0.55 seconds, which reduced to 0.1 seconds with pre-focusing. The continuous shooting mode recorded shots at 0.5 second intervals and it took just over three seconds to process a 10-shot burst. The supplied batteries were flattened less than half-way into our tests but, since the resplacements (rechargeable NiMH batteries) still had plenty of power left after just over 100 additional shots, we feel the camera's batteries may have been used beforehand. 

Conclusion
Overall, the PowerShot A570 IS provides a huge range of controls and functions for its price. It's a camera family users can 'grow with' and, despite some reservations about image noise, some slow response times and poor auto white balance performance under incandescent light, we think buyers would be hard-pressed to find a digicam that offers so many advantages for the money.

IMATEST GRAPHS

SAMPLE IMAGES

Close-up.

Digital zoom.

A 1.5 second exposure at ISO 1600 showing the whole frame (above) and an enlarged section (below) showing image noise.

The auto white balance setting used with incandescent light.

The manual pre-sets and custom measurement settings produced results similar to the sample above.

Sample images showing colour rendition on an overcast day with the auto white balance setting.