Decently Cheap
Written: Dec 26 '04
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Pros: Price tag, feature set
Cons: Lack of manual focus, battery life
The Bottom Line: If you already own a good digital camera, make this your stunt camera.
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| nad_masters's Full Review: Gateway DC-M42 Digital Camera |
Having fun taking impromptu pictures with the Handspring Treo 600 PDA/Phone, trying to print them out later on my Canon i900D photo printer proved an ugly experience. The 640x480 pixelated mess barely look fine on the monitor, and when printed out, looks worse. So, I decided to buy a cheap digital camera that could at least capture 2.1 Mpixel. And that was why I had the chance to experience the Aiptek PocketCam X - the camera that just didn't want to stay on. The Aiptek PocketCam X was $129.99 (If I remember correctly).
After the poor experience with the PocketCam, I wasn't sure how a $99.99 4.0 MP camera from Gateway would perform. My friend bought one at Best Buy for $99.99, and seemed to be pretty happy. Of course, when I was ready to buy, the sale was over. I found the same Gateway DC-M42 camera on pcliquidator.com for the same price, and decided to bite.
Packaging
The box it comes in is cubed - very cute and iPod-like. It comes with a manual, driver CD, a 4-AA battery charger, 2 Ni-MH AA batteries, and a wrist strap. The camera itself and a lens cap tethered to the camera is also in the box, of course.
Everything is secured in the box by folded cardboard that was cut to conform the items it holds. No Styrofoam.
In Use
Once turned on, the DC-M42 beeps as the lens protrudes out of the camera's body as if by instinct. If you forget to remove the lens cap before you turn it on, the lens will harmlessly pop it out for you. The built-in 11 MB is enough for about 8 photos in the highest quality settings (4 MP at high quality).
There are many modes to shoot with, but most will choose Auto. This make it a very simple camera to use - a point and shoot affair. The camera chooses the white balance, exposure, and ISO based on the half-pressed trigger button as it monitors what it senses on it's optical sensors.
Then there is Manual Mode, which allows you to set the above settings (white balance, exposure, and ISO setting), plus color saturation, and sharpness. Unfortunately, there is no manual focus setting.
Rotating the wheel on the camera allow you to switch modes, including to the Settings Mode, which lets you set time, date, television standard (NTSC or PAL), the beep when you take a picture on or off, languages (English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese), Auto power off during idle (3, 5, 10, 30 minutes, or never off). All the settings can be navigated and set using the 4-way directional pad on the camera next to the LCD and the OK button in the middle of the directional pad.
Other pre-determined modes included on the wheel are Action Mode (for faster shutter speeds to capture moving subjects), Night Mode (to reduce background noise), Landscape Mode (blurs foreground, focuses on background), Portrait Mode (blurs background, focuses on foreground/subject), and Macro Mode (for close up of small objects).
There is also a 10 second delay option - just hit the "down" button on the directional pad. An icon will show up on the LCD display indicating it is on delay mode. Can then place the camera on a tripod (it has the standard tripod mount on the bottom), and hit the trigger button to activate the countdown.
As you can see, there are many modes that make this inexpensive camera very versatile. However, not all of them work perfectly, since they are all pre-set from the factory. There is no manual adjustment of settings for more advanced users (such as aperature controls or manual focusing).
The 3x optical zoom is very nice, but zooms in discrete steps. Though they are in small steps, it can be frustrating for some who just want to zoom to a level in between the discrete steps the DC-M42 allows them to. As for the digital zoom, instead of zooming in via LCD, it just grays out the area it is cropping out for the digital zoom, which is more honest than most digital cameras, but can cause some user confusion during use. The digital zooms an additional 4x, for a total of 12x zoom.
You can save batteries by turning off the LCD and just use the viewfinder. To do this, just hit the OK button twice. If you hit it once, the informational status goes away, leaving the LCD displaying what it sees through the lens and nothing else. The second time, the LCD turns off completely. This is a good thing to do, since the DC-M42 eats up power like a hungry, hungry hippo.
Battery life only lasts about 15-20 shots with the LCD on, with mixed flash/non-flash uses. With mixed use of LCD, we can squeeze out about 10-15 more pictures. Pure viewfinder usage provided about 5-10 more pictures on top of that. With this experience, I find myself carrying my charge along with 2 more pairs of Ni-MH AA batteries, rotating the charging as I go along. I guess the included 4-AA charger is a clue to why it needs 4 batteries, while the device only takes 2. :)
As for the resolutions, you can set to these pre-determined settings:
0.3 MP - 640 x 480
1.2 MP - 1280 x 960
2.0 MP - 1600 x 1200
4.0 MP - 2304 x 1728
There are also 3 quality levels - Fine, Normal, and Low.
The compression setting must be factory set to be fixed file sizes, since at 4.0 MP and Fine, all file sizes are 1.42 MB in size (. Unlike other camera that interpolate digital zooms, the DC-M42 saves the picture in its native resolution (whatever it may be). For example, I have zoomed in all the way using the digital zoom, and created a photo with a resolution of only 576x432! This is actually lower than the lowest resolution the camera is pre-set to have!
For previewing pictures, you can hit the preview picture button on the camera located by the LCD just above the directional pad. You can zoom in your picture using the zoom button (as if you were taking a picture), or zoom out with the zoom out button. You can also hit the zoom out button once you are zoomed out all the way to see multiple pictures on the 1.6" LCD screen to make it easier to pick out the one you want to see.
The resolution, date, time, and current photo/total photos tally is displayed on screen.
Photo Quality
With the fixed file size, the pictures are usually larger in file size than most other digital cameras. However, because of this, the photos are crisp in daytime outdoor lighting. Indoors, the flash can be overpowering when used too close, causing some of your subjects looking as white as a ghost. However, you can see fine details in the hair (as long as it's dark). Otherwise, if used at about 5 feet away, your subjects will be lit up better with the flash, and detail is very good.
I personally could not tell the difference between the Normal and the Fine capture mode. Very little artifacts can be found in both when zoomed in using a photo editing program. Low quality should be avoided unless you are using it just for the web, where 56k modem users are still abundant.
The lens must be of poor quality, as it seems that the further you use the optical zoom, the softer the picture is when you zoom in with a photo editing program. The defined borders of different colors are much more blurred when using the optical zoom (at around 2x). Not sure if this is the lens, or if the firmware on the camera is not focusing correctly with the correct data when zoomed in.
Movie Capture
The DC-M42 also capture MPG video in 320 x 240 resolution, with mono sound (there is a microphone on top of the camera). The quality of the video is pretty blurry, while sound pick-up is poor. If your subject is around 3 feet away, sound will be audible.
Conclusion
This is definitely not the best camera in the market, but it is surprisingly featured for $100. Add to that a 4.0 MP resolution (native) that capture enough data to print beyond 8 x 10 photos, and you got yourself a very compelling reason to own one just for shiz and giggles. Have one for the kids, or one “just in case†in the glove compartment.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 99.99
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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Epinions.com ID:
nad_masters
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Location: Chicago, IL, USA
Reviews written: 548
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If you mind is in the gutter, where are your hands?
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