Kodak v570 - wide angle lens camera for real estate

Kodak V570 EasyShare Camera - Review and Photo comparison

Is this new camera the right one for real estate agents??

A new wide angle camera has just been released by Kodak, called the v570. It's almost pocket-sized (thin and long) and is the first consumer digital camera to have two lenses built it. One is a 23mm wide angle lens and the other a 39-117mm. It is a 5 MegaPixel camera. It uses a SD card for memory. It comes with one rechargeable battery that is supposed to take around 150 photos. It takes 3 hours to recharge! If you go with the Kodak, I'd have one or two extra batteries you keep charged. You don't want to be out taking photos of a real estate and have your battery go dead.

I ordered the Kodak v570 directly from the Kodak site as it hasn't got into wide distribution yet and it was the only place I could find that had it in stock. It cost $399. Within about a week, I received it (January 23, 2006).

I just got back from taking the first photos with the camera. I brought along a couple of my other cameras for comparison, a Canon S500 digital elph, and a Nikon d70s DSLR with the Nikon 12-24mm wide angle lens. It was a beautiful day here on the California Central Coast so I decided to take the camera to downtown San Luis Obispo.

The Kodak v570 is small (more thin then short though). My Canon S500 has been my favorite "pocket camera". It is a little thicker but about 2/3 of an inch shorter. The Kodak v570 has a large LCD display. You need it because this camera does not have a view finder. You have to use the LCD to position your photo. This is a major pain when you take outdoor photography. It's almost impossible to see any detail on the LCD if it's sunny out. It reminds me of my horrors with my old Nikon 990. I had a wide angle attachment but you had to use the LCD when you had it screwed on instead of the view finder. I ended up getting a Hoodman which went around the Nikon 990's LCD and looked like a miniature version of what football referees look into on the field when they are doing an instant replay challenge. It was not fun having to deal with this. The Kodak v570 has a larger LCD than my Nikon had but I ended up taking some "blind" shots today because I couldn't see the LCD picture well when I was trying to shape the shot. If I was given the choice of a larger LCD or a viewfinder, I'd choose the viewfinder every time.

The controls on the camera seem pretty straightforward. On/Off button, buttons for flash, delete, menu, review, and share. There are lots of screen modes you put the camera into, like beach, close-up, night portrait, etc. You can take a 2 or 3 photo panorama too and it will stitch them together. You can press the Scene button on top and it will display the 20 or so scenes as icons. You use the small joystick button to pick which scene you want.

There is a lens cover that opens when you turn on the camera exposing both lenses. The LCD is pretty exposed so you need to be careful of scratching it. It also sucks up finger oil real good so you'll want a cloth handy to clean the LCD screen.

When you power the camera up, it defaults to "Ultra Wide" 23mm. If you want to zoom in, you push the zoom button and watch a slider on the LCD. It will first stop at the top of the wide angle lens. You have to release it and then press it again to control the next lens. You can zoom in until it reaches it's max and then stops. If you release the zoom button then press it again, it will go into the Digital Zoom mode. I like the way it does this since you won't be surprised if you use digital zoom but didn't want to. Since the camera defaults back to ultra wide angle mode when you power off/on the camera, it's a quick shortcut to get the camera to wide angle without having to step back down using the zoom in/out button.

The following are photo comparisons I did with the three cameras today. I wanted to do some more interior shots of homes so you can see how they compare with more traditional real estate shots, but I think you'll get a good idea from these photos.

A wide angle lens for real estate is a must have, IMO. Most real estate agents have an equivalent lens size as the Canon s500.

The photos below are untouched. I didn't put them through any photo editing software for clean up. The photo size below is what you normally see on Realtor.com. If you click on the photo, you'll get the full size photo that the camera stored (warning: HUGE photos). I took the photos standing in the same place so you can see how it looks using different sizes of lens.

All the photos below were taken with the "Auto" setting of each camera. It was all Point and Shoot.

Kodak v570 (at 23 mm)	Nikon d70s with 12mm-24mm lens (at widest setting)	Canon s500 Digital Elph
This is the creek in downtown San Luis Obispo.
One of the California Missions. That's my finger in the lower right. Didn't see it on the LCD!		The Canon sure creates blue skies.
Here's the full zoom.	Zoom using the 70mm-300mm lens.	Looks like a bit better zoom than the Kodak
One of the tourist destinations in San Luis Obispo is Bubble gum alley. It's got wads of gum stuck on both sides of it.	I I focused both the Kodak and Nikon on the white wall at the top to get the exposure set so it would be a blue sky, then moved the cameras down.
Here's a close up of the wall. Yummy Bubblegum!?		Taken from the same distance as the other cameras.

		The lack of a wide angle lens really shows up in this comparison.
This of the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. Very unique hotel/motel.	Here's one drawback with the 12-24mm lens. If you have it at the widest setting, the flash causes a dark spot at the bottom. You need to use an external flash attached to the camera to get around this. I didn't bring the SB600 with me so I'll stop with showing the Nikon d70s indoor shots.
	If you're running out to get plane tickets to come see the bubble gum alley, you'll also want to visit the downstairs men's room at the Madonna Inn and see the infamous urinal! Notice the seeing eye? When you break the light, the water starts flowing down the back rock wall.
	A wide angle really pays off when taking photos of small rooms.
This is a photo of my parrot. You'll notice the camera strap got in the photo too. My thumb got in a couple other shots too with the Kodak v570. Something to watch out for.

My first impression of the Kodak v570 is that it is a good wide angle camera for $400 and I'd recommend it for real estate agents. There isn't another wide angle lens camera under $400 on the market. The Nikon 8400 was a 24mm camera listing around $800 but it's been discontinued.

When I was taking some photos of my parrot walking across my balcony, most the photos of the Kodak v570 were blurry. I'll need to play around with the camera a bit more on moving (action) shots although my parrot doesn't walk that fast. There's a feature on the Kodak called the blur monitor. If the camera thinks the photo is blurred, it displays a colored alarm. I thought that was an interesting feature when I read the manual and now hope it doesn't mean that the Kodak takes blurred photos a lot.

I'd still choose a digital SLR camera if you want the next step up. Just having the ability to have an external flash bouncing the light off the ceiling makes a huge difference for interior home shots. You can get a Nikon d50 with an 18mm-55mm lens for around $700. The SB600 speed light flash attachment is around $150. The lens works out to be 27mm for wide angle shots so the Kodak v570 actually has a wider lens when you compare apples-to-apples. You can add additional wide angle lens for a dSLR (the Canon Rebel is another good choice). But...a 12-24mm wide angle lens costs about $1000 for the lens itself.

- Keith Byrd

San Luis Obispo Real Estate
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