E
ver have that problem where you want to take a nice group picture of your
friends, say at the Grand Canyon, and you just can’t get ‘em all in the frame?
So you ask them to keep backing up a step and before you know it... oops!
Well, this camera will help make your next vacation a bit safer. The V570
packs two lenses into its sleek body: an ultra-wide angle (23mm) and a 5x
optical zoom (39mm-to-117mm). This amounts to all the standard capabilities
of a point-and-shoot, plus the ability to go to wide-angle for group portraits
and the like.
Of course, with dual lenses you’re talking about dual 5-megapixel image-
sensors, which translates into a higher price compared with competing
single-lens cameras. We think the added functionality of the dual-lenses is
worth it, especially when you take into account the camera’s overall solid
image quality, particularly indoors. There is, however, a noticeable hitch in
the LCD viewfinder image when the camera makes the jump from 39mm to
23mm—you must depress and re-press the zoom controls to make the view-
finder register the switch.
Call us old-school but we miss having the optical viewfinder in addition
to the LCD, for composing shots. That said, the 2.5-inch LCD is crisp and per-
forms well in all but the brightest outdoor settings, and the camera’s controls,
including automatic scene modes, are easy and comfortable to use. A 30fps
MPEG-4 movie mode is offered, but the video suffers from severe grain, ren-dering it an afterthought at best.
An included panoramic picture mode guides you through the process
of snapping up to three pictures, providing image overlays on the LCD and
then stitching them together in-camera. This is pretty cool, as you can
immediately view the results—which were quite good in our tests—and
determine whether you need to retake the shots.
If you’re looking for simplicity and flexibility, the V570 is well worth
consideration. (Note: Kodak has already released an updated 6-megapixel
version, the V610, with integrated Bluetooth capabilities and a 10x
optical zoom, for $50 more.)
—STEVE KLETTKodak EasyShare V570
It’s like having two cameras in one—sorta
W
e’re taking the Three Bears approach here. If Premiere Elements 2.0
(reviewed in March 2006) is too complex and Pinnacle’s Studio Plus 10
(reviewed in April 2006) is too buggy, Ulead’s VideoStudio 10 Plus could be
just right for people who want the fastest route from DV cam to the TV screen.
VideoStudio 10 Plus’ new features include an shake-reduction filter to
bring it up to par with its competitors, and support for HDV, multiple overlays,
and MPEG-4 and Divx output. And the program includes a generous stable of
powerful video effects—we particularly liked the duo-tone effect.
For performance reasons, you won’t be editing HDV content at native
resolution. VideoStudio 10 uses a proxy video file on which to do your edits
and transitions. Then the project is output at full resolution—supposedly.
We were unable to test the feature using an HDV MPEG-2 file we captured
with another application. We’re not sure why; it could just be an incompat-
ibility with our encoding method.
One thing we are sure about, however, is performance. VideoStudio 10
just didn’t seem as responsive as the other applications we’ve tested. A very
noticeable and annoying one or two second lag occurs before video playback
starts or stops. We also don’t like the fact that video playback stops when you
change the scale on the timeline. When you’re nose-to-CRT looking at a scene
and you want to zoom out of the timeline, you don’t want everything to come
to a screeching halt. Doing a frame-by-frame edit of a clip was just downright
clunky and painful. But our main complaint is with the poor documentation
of the controls. For example, instead of including the keyboard command in a
pop-up bubble when you hover over the soft button, you have to dig into theback of the manual to find the shortcuts.
While we think VideoStudio 10 is great for someone who wants to per-
form simple, straightforward edits, more ambitious editors are better
off with Premiere or Magix’ Movie Edit Pro 11 (which we reviewed
in July 2006).
—GORDON MAH UNGUlead VideoStudio 10 Plus
The quick-and-dirty video editor
2 MA XIMUMPC SEPTEMBER 2006
reviewsTESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED
The V570 is the first ultra-compact point-and-shoot to sport two
lenses, and two image sensors.VideoStudio 10 Plus retains the series’ familiar interface,
while adding several new key features.VIDEOSTUDIO 10 PLUS
$100, http://www.ulead.comKODAK EASYSHARE V570 8
$400, http://www.kodak.com4”2 ”.8”