Canon PowerShot A570 IS review

The A570 IS's automatic white balance returned yellowish images with our lab's tungsten lights, so you'll want to switch to the tungsten preset, which provided pleasingly neutral results, if shooting indoors around incandescent lights. Canon keeps noise under control through ISO 200. While noise is noticeable at ISO 200, especially on a monitor, it is fairly minor and shouldn't be a problem in prints. At ISO 400, noise turns grittier with more discrete speckles showing up, though shadow detail and sharpness remain fairly intact.

Noise rises precipitously at ISO 800, creating a dense snowy covering over the entire image, obscuring much of the shadow detail and softening finer details. By ISO 1600, most shadow detail and sharpness is lost and images are covered in a blizzard of white and coloured speckles. We suggest sticking to ISO 400 and below whenever possible, especially if you plan to make prints larger than 100x150mm (4x6 inches).

Conclusion
Overall, the PowerShot A570 IS is a solid compact camera that offers a lot of value for your money. We were disappointed with its high ISO noise, but you'll be hard pressed to find a compact camera at a price like this that has manual exposure controls, optical image stabilisation, flash output control and speedy performance. Plus, similar to all the A-series cameras, this one runs on AA batteries, so if you run out of power, you don't need to wait for charging.

If image stabilisation doesn't float your boat and you never use manual exposure controls, you may want to step down to the A560, which is otherwise very similar to this model.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance.)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (typical)

Kodak EasyShare C875

1.4 

2 

0.2 

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W35

1.4 

1.4 

0.4 

Canon PowerShot A570 IS

1.8 

1.8 

0.5 

Nikon Coolpix L5

3 

3.5 

1 

Additional editing by Kate Macefield