14 out of 14 people found this review helpful.
Decent Photos, But WHOAH, Poor Quality
Date of Review: Sep 5, 2004
The Bottom Line: If you are counting pennies (literally) fine, but if you can scrape up some more, look around. There are much better cameras for only a little more.
Intro:
With all the talk of Sony, Canon, Fuji, Olympus, Nikon, and the other major camera players today, you usually don't think of Gateway. This is Gateway the computer makers I'm talking about, who a while ago, decided to get into other product areas as well. They came out with several camera models which continue to slowly evolve, and sold them in their stores - that is, until all of their stores went "bust" and closed down.
Today, Gateway cameras are sold in a variety of retail outlets. I found the DC-M42 at a local Best Buy store for a mere $129.00 (U.S.).
Rumor has it that Samsung makes the cameras for Gateway by the way, but I've not yet fully confirmed this.
Just going to go down a list of descriptions below, folks.
What you get:
The DC-M42 ( kinda sounds like an aircraft name, doesn't it? ), comes with of course the camera, a wrist strap, clip-on lens cap, small instruction manual, two rechargeable AA sized Ni-MH batteries and a wall charger, USB and TV cables, and software.
The software includes camera drivers, and very basic image editing programs - Photosuite for editing, and Photovista for creating panoramic images.
Features:
The DC-M42 is a 4 megapixel camera which offers a top image size of 2304 x 1728 pixels, all the way down to 640 x 480 pixels for emailing. It offers three quality/compression settings of economy, normal, and fine. There is a 3X optical zoom and standard LCD screen ( more on all below ). A 320 x 240 movie clip mode is offered and according to the manual, it does record sound but you can only hear it if played back on a television, as the camera has no speaker.
Build & Layout:
The camera is mostly plastic, except for a raised area around the lens barrel which feels like thin metal. The rest of it you definitely know is plastic when you hold the camera, feeling a bit on the cheapish side. A somewhat flimsy panel is on the bottom next to a tripod socket where you insert two AA sized batteries ( alkalines or the included rechargeables ), and an optional memory card. It's important to note now, that the DC-M42 does NOT come with a memory card. It has 11 megabytes of internal memory to get you started, but that only holds a few shots at the best resolution setting. If you want more storage, you'll have to buy a Secure Digital ( SD ) card separately.
The front has your lens barrel which retracts into the camera when not in use - you need to clip the lens cap on to protect the lens. The back of the camera has your LCD screen, optical viewfinder, navigation pad, zoom control switch, and three buttons for photo review, menu, and trash ( ok, a 4th button is technically in the middle of the navigation pad for "ok" to finalize settings choices ). On top you have a mode dial which covers a fully automatic mode, and a variety of scene modes for portraits, landscapes, macro (closeup), fast action, and movie modes. The power switch ( kinda stiff and cheap feeling, too ) and shutter also reside on the top, along with a small microphone hole for capturing sound. The left side has a covered area for your USB cable connection, video out jack, and power cable ( optional ).
One irritating note is how there really isn't a comfortable place to rest your thumb on the back of the camera! There is an oval shaped raised area that nearly goes from side to side surrounding the LCD and navigation pad. The right side of this oval interferes with where you thumb naturally wants to rest on the back, causing you to have to shift up a bit and closer to the edge than feels safe ( always wear your wrist strap! ). Poor design, folks.
Operation:
I inserted two Duracell Ultra alkaline batteries and a SD memory card of my own, turned the camera on, and in about 4-5 seconds, it was ready to take a photo. The movement on the LCD screen was just a little jerky and a bit grainy, but useable. Zooming out with the 3X optical zoom, I noticed a bit of a sluggishness to the zoom mechanism, and you can very slightly see the image jumping around in the LCD as it zooms, indicating a somewhat cheesy quality lens barrel movement. When I aimed at a subject and half-pressed the shutter button to focus, I noticed two things: 1) It didn't show crosshairs or a box in the LCD screen to show me where it was focusing, and 2) It gave no confirmation beep when it HAD focused. The LCD just blinks out for a second, then comes back and you're supposedly focused. Hmmmm. Ok, so I finish pressing the shutter button, and again, the LCD blinks out for a second, and them for a moment I see the image I took as it saves it to the card. Again, no sounds at all to confirm you've taken a photo.
I took several images in various settings and things went smoothly, even though it was irritating to have to guess all the time as to whether or not I was in focus... you really DO miss those beeps. There is no way to turn them on in the menu system by the way - you simply get no confirmation tones for anything . After about 22 images, I got a "low battery" warning on the screen, and it immediately shut off. It goes without saying then, that the included Ni-MH batteries will save you money with use, as you'll eat through tons of alkalines if you go that route.
The menu system is fairly easy to get around using the navigation pad on the back, and it doesn't take long to figure your way around image size, quality settings, and even controls for sharpness and saturation levels, as well as exposure controls. All basic controls and then some, for everyday snapshots.
So basically, we have so far a somewhat cheapish feeling plastic camera which is awkward to hold, has cheesy feeling buttons and controls, and give you no confirmation tones to let you know when you've correctly captured a shot or not. Doesn't look good... does the image quality help make up for these problems?
Image Quality:
You'll hear me use the term, "For the price", when rating an item in my reviews. Digicams come in such a variety of prices and features, that it's hard at times to compare one to another directly. For instance, the DC-M42 is a 4 megapixel camera which I've seen in stores from $99.00 to $129.00 on average, yet the Canon A80 is also a 4 megapixel camera which sells for an average these days of $299.00. The Canon however, is built much better than the DC-M42, offers more features, a higher quality lens, and takes excellent images. Is it fair to compare the Gateway to such a higher level of camera?
Well, I was actually quite surprised - the DC-M42 takes pretty decent images! I'm still not going to say they're as good as a camera which costs two or three times more, however, they were not the faded, noisy images I was expecting from a camera that costs less than $130.00, either. Colors are pretty much on the accurate side, and saturation is average to good in most scenes. Sharpness while not "razor sharp" in it's default setting, was good enough for me to do good 5 x 7 prints using an Epson R300 ( or similar quality ) printer and good paper.
Macro ( close up ) images were likewise, decent. The camera had a tendency to blow out highlights quite a bit though, both in regular mixed-contrast scenes, as well as the macro shots. This is however, expected with a camera of this price level.
My Two Cents:
Ok, so the DC-M42 isn't going to come remotely close to winning any awards regarding it's design or build quality. It simply is awkward to use, and probably would not stand up over time to frequent use. The images however, are deserving of a little praise for a camera of this price level.
Would I recommend the DC-M42 to someone as their "primary" camera? No. I would however, endorse it as a casual "second camera" to carry around in the car, briefcase, or purse. No one seems to want to use their good expensive cameras in everyday and potentially camera-hazardous conditions. Being so inexpensive, you could carry the DC-M42 into these day to day activities and conditions and it wouldn't send you to the poor house if you destroyed or misplaced it, or it was stolen. I think that reasonably responsible children over the age of nine, might enjoy such a device.
Are you desperate to own your first digicam, yet are on such a tight budget that the DC-M42 seems to be all you can afford? Well, perhaps not. Look under the sofa cushions and scrape up some extra change, because for only a few dollars more, Gateway offers their model DC-T50 - a better built, better specified, higher resolution camera. It still won't compete with the major brands, but it's a very obvious step up from this camera.
