Good to average speed for a consumer camera.

The Canon PowerShot A570 IS's performance ranges from good to just average, though its 10.7-second flash recycle time is slow. Start-up time is reasonable, but not fast. Shutter lag at wide angle and telephoto zoom settings is good, and "prefocus" times (half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure) are fast as well, with a shutter delay of only 0.075 second. Shot-to-shot cycle times are a little longer than average these days, at about 2.6 seconds for large/superfine JPEGs, but the camera captures frames continuously at this rate. Continuous-mode speed is on the slower side, at about 1.25 frame/second, though the camera captures frames continuously. Connected to a computer, download speeds are exceptionally fast, so you won't feel a need for a separate card reader. Bottom line, the Canon A570 IS is responsive enough for most family photo opportunities, though its continuous shooting mode might be a tad slow for wiggly kids or sporting events.

Battery
Short battery life with standard AA alkaline cells, but much better life with NiMH rechargeables.

The Canon PowerShot A570 IS uses two AA batteries for power, and a pair of ordinary alkaline batteries are included with the camera. Runtimes are increased with NiMH batteries over alkalines. As always, we strongly recommend you pick up a couple of sets of good-quality NiMH rechargeable batteries and a good-quality charger, as they'll save you many times their cost over the life of the camera. (Do be sure to get good-quality batteries though, we found our sample of the A570IS to be a little finicky, insisting on good, high-capacity cells or it would shut down after relatively few shots.)

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on either a fresh set of disposable batteries or a fully-charged rechargeable battery as appropriate), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

Storage
The Canon PowerShot A570 IS accepts SD/MMC memory cards, and a 16MB card is included with the camera.

We strongly recommend buying a large capacity SD/MMC memory card at least a 1GB card, preferably a 2GB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings. (Check the shopping link above, cards are really cheap these days, so no reason to skimp.)