Gateway DV-S20 Review
7/10
The major strong points of the DV-S20 are its size and ease of use. The camera is easily operated by one hand.
Buy it Now:
Highs: Small, compact, easy to use, relatively inexpensive, good images in right conditions
Lows: Need good light conditions for best results, no lens cover, no red-eye reduction
With Gateway's recent success in the consumer electronics market, we looked forward to their latest digital imaging product - the DV-S20 Digital MPEG4 Camcorder; a hand-held digital still and video camera.
Summary
Gateway’s latest entry into the digital imaging marketplace is their DV-S20, a 2.1 megapixel digital still and video camera. Gateway calls the camera “pocket sized” and for good reason. At 4.3 oz it measures 3.5 x 2.5 x 1.2 inches and truly does fit in a pocket. The camera records still images in the JPEG format and movies in the MPEG-4 format.
The DV-S20 Pocket Multi-Cam is not intended for super high quality photos, prints or videos. If you’re in the market for the best imaging, this is not the device for you. However, this device is quite useful for someone who wants to have a still and video camera handy at all times. It’s small, light, and under the right conditions, takes good images and videos. It’s very easy to use and you can quickly get videos and images to your computer and on the Internet.
Introduction
Gateway’s latest entry into the digital imaging marketplace is their DV-S20, a 2.1 megapixel digital still and video camera. Gateway calls the camera “pocket sized” and for good reason. At 4.3 oz it measures 3.5 x 2.5 x 1.2 inches and truly does fit in a pocket. The camera records still images in the JPEG format and movies in the MPEG-4 format.
Features
The $199 DV-S20 is completely digital, storing your video and images on 64mb of internal memory and optionally on a Secure Digital card up to 512mb. It features a 2.5x digital zoom, a 1.5″ LCD display, and a built in microphone and flash. There are onboard connections for USB1.1, a mini-plug A/V connection and a 3v DC in.
The LCD display swivels out and rotates 270 degrees. This is useful if you want to take a picture of yourself or hold the camera high above your head or below your waist.
Included in the retail box are the camera, an extra-long A/V cable, a wrist strap, the user manual, a USB 1.1 cable (A to mini B), two AA batteries and image and video editing software.
Access to the DV-S20’s battery and Secure Digital slot is in the front. (Shown held on its side)
We were pleased with the included A/V cable, which is used to connect the camera to a TV or VCR for playback. The long cable helps if you have to plug in to the back of a TV or VCR.
Gateway says you can get about 45 minutes out of a pair of standard AA batteries, and our tests verified that. You should be able to get more time out of a pair of rechargeable batteries, with the added bonus of being able to use them over and over again.
The major strong points of the DV-S20 are its size and ease of use. The camera is easily operated by one hand in both video and still camera mode. It also easily fits into a purse or pocket.
For $39.99, Gateway also offers an accessory pack, which includes a carrying pouch, mini tripod, rechargeable batteries with a clever recharger that handles AAA and AA batteries, and an AC adapter.
Operation
The menus are easy to understand and navigate through and the controls are intuitive. The power button on top of the unit doubles as the menu button. Push it once and you are presented with the menu options on the LCD screen. The menus can be navigated through with your thumb using only one hand.
There are separate menus for “Record” and “Setup”. The “Record” menu features options such as image quality, image size (1600×1200 or 800×600), exposure and white balance. The “Setup” menu is where you can format the flash memory, and change various unit settings. Here you can choose to have a date stamp on your images, and change the language (English, French, German, and Spanish) and select NTSC or PAL output.
Menu navigation uses the same up, down, left and right buttons that are used for the camera controls.
There are separate buttons for taking still images and recording video. This allows the user to record a mix of video and still images without having to change any settings.
The DV-S20 can be operated by one hand using your thumb on the controls.
There is a standard size tripod mount on the bottom of the unit and a 10-second timer for taking shots on a time-delay.
Once images are captured, they can be viewed on the LCD display, on a TV with the included A/V cable or transferred to a PC via USB. Windows 2000 and XP recognize the DV-S20 as an external storage device and do not require any drivers. A driver is included for Windows 98. Because of this, you could also use the DV-S20 to store or transfer data if necessary.
Performance
The performance of the Gateway DV-S20 Pocket Multi-Cam can be expressed in
the images and videos it captures.
We found the best performance in both video and still images was attained in
well-lit areas. We took images of multi-colored areas to best show the camera’s
color reproduction.
Images:
The first image was taken outside on a bright day. It is at the highest
settings – Super Fine at 1600×1200 resolution.
Click on the
thumbnails for the full size image.
src="http://reviews.designtechnica.com/images/reviews/gateway/dv-s20/Super%20Fine%20thumb.jpg"
align=baseline border=0>
The next image is also 1600×1200 pixels, but was taken using the “Normal”
setting; which is the lowest quality setting.
src="http://reviews.designtechnica.com/images/reviews/gateway/dv-s20/Normal%20thumb.jpg"
align=baseline border=0>
Videos:
The first video is a 23 second unedited clip taken at the highest quality
setting (Super Fine).
here for the video.
The second video is a 28 second “Super Fine” clip that was edited in
Microsoft Movie Maker 2 on Windows XP.
here for the second video.
The first video was 4.2mb in size and the second, edited clip was 1.2mb in
size. The editing in Windows Movie Maker reduced the file size and the
difference in quality is noticeable.
The third video is 23 seconds long and was taken at the lowest quality
(Normal) setting. Note the difference beteween the first two clips.
here for the third video.
Image Quality
The DV-S20, which is also called the “Pocket Multi-Cam”, uses a CMOS image sensor. Most high-quality digital imaging products today use a CCD image sensor, but CMOS is becoming more mainstream. CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) image sensors have been around for about 30 years, and are capable of very high quality digital images. CMOS (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) is a much newer technology and until recently, offered much lower quality images.
There are benefits of a CMOS lens however, which make the DV-S20 possible. CMOS sensors can use up to 1/10 as much power as CCDs making them better for battery powered devices. They also cost less to produce. CMOS also incorporates on-chip circuitry for additional processing (such as JPEG compression) which results in lower power usage and a smaller form-factor. The CMOS sensor is what allows the DV-S20 to be so small and relatively inexpensive, however at a trade-off of image quality.
There are three quality settings each for video or still picture mode. An icon represents what quality option is selected: one star for the lowest quality, two stars for medium quality and three stars for the highest quality. There wasn’t much, if any, difference between the high and medium settings for still images. Image size and quality were very similar on both.
At the highest settings, still image quality was excellent under proper lighting conditions. Unfortunately, these conditions can sometimes be hard to find. Bright rooms or outdoors during daylight provided the best results. Even with the built in flash, images can be too dark and muted without good light. The flash is an added bonus, but does not include a red-eye reduction feature, which was noticeable in some shots. There is no manual focusing option, so you’ll have to get used to how the lens focuses to get the best shots.
Video Quality
The DV-S20 stores videos in the MPEG-4 format at 320×240 and at 22 to 25 fps. This is the Microsoft .asf (Advanced Systems Format) file format which is a true streaming video file. You won’t get DVD quality videos out of it, but you will be able to easily share the videos you capture. The .asf file format was developed specifically for streaming across the internet. It compresses on-the-fly for small file sizes and has the ability to start remote playback almost instantaneously. In fact, even users on dialup can view streaming video in this format without much lag. This makes the Gateway DV-S20 ideal for sharing images and video over the internet with friends and family.
As with the still images, the amount of light available determines how well your videos come out. If you aren’t outside in the sun or in a well lit room, your videos will be dark and the colors will be off. Shots with a lot of movement or action tend to be a bit choppy also, but the better the lighting; the better they come out too.
In our opinion, the image and video quality with the lower settings weren’t worth using. We’d suggest that you use the highest settings when possible.
Image and Video Size and Transfer
Images and Video are transferred to a PC with the included USB cable. It would have been nice for it to be USB 2.0, but in order to keep the price under $200, USB 1.1 was used. Transfers aren’t bad with USB 1.1 if you are using only the onboard 64mb of storage, but if you were to use a 512mb smart media card, it would be very time consuming.
We were able to transfer an almost full onboard storage (62.5mb) of images and video in 3 minutes and 16 seconds. In numerous tests of similar amounts of data, it stayed around 3:15. For 512mb of data, that equates to over 26 minutes of transfer time.
Gateway estimates that you can fit 91 images at the highest quality setting (Super Fine) on the internal 64mb memory. Our tests showed an average of closer to 140 images without any video. That seems to be plenty of storage for still images, but when you add video into the mix, you start running out of room quickly. Gateway estimates about 5 minutes of video can be stored in the internal memory at the “Super Fine” setting and our tests agree with that. With the highest quality video and still images at the same time, you’ll want to add more storage if you are going to be taking much video. Keep in mind though, with 3 minutes of “Super Fine” video, you still have room for 20 or 30 pictures.
The Good, The Bad, and The Quirky
We liked the portability and ease of use of this unit. It can be carried around easily and stored in a pocket or purse. With the right settings and light, images were nice and videos were acceptable. Images and video were easy to transfer and the .asf video format made streaming over the web worthwhile. The menus and manual are easy to understand and a novice can be up and running in a matter of minutes. The included batteries and cables are a nice touch.
We didn’t like the fact that images and video recorded with less-than-optimal lighting were low quality and often not useable. We also would have liked to see a lens cover of some sort. If you really do carry this pocket camera in your pocket or purse, getting dust on the lens is inevitable. Also as mentioned before, a red-eye reduction feature would also be nice.
There were a few quirky things with the DV-S20 that are worth mentioning. First, the camera stores images and videos in numeric order. This means if you take three pictures, two videos and then two more pictures, they will be named IMAG0001.jpg, IMAG0002.jpg, IMAG0003.jpg, ASF_0004.asf, ASF_0005.asf, IMAG0006.jpg, IMAG0007.jpg. This is not terrible but we thought it would be better if videos and images were on a separate numbering scheme. The problem arises when you transfer files to your computer. Once you transfer the media to your computer and erase them from your camera, it starts over back at IMAG0001.jpg or ASF_0001.asf. This means that you either have to rename the files every time you transfer to your computer or store them in a different folder so you don’t over-write existing media or get confused. Most other digital cameras start the next batch of images at the next number, so you never have duplication of file names.
The manual was well-written and easy to understand until we got to the part about the different flash modes. It explains how to change flash modes (Intensive, Extensive and Flash Off) using the “OK” button. We found that there is a separate flash mode button (not the OK button) which is the “up” button used for menu navigation that is briefly mentioned in the beginning of the manual, but there was nothing that said what icon represented what mode. When we thought we figured out the icons for the Intensive and Extensive flash modes, it didn’t flash when we expected it to.
Another strange quirk is that when you stop recording video, the LCD screen says “Recording!” It doesn’t mean anything as far as the quality or usefulness goes, but we thought it was a bit odd.
The major quirk we found was with the included software. The DV-S20 includes Roxio Photosuite 4 SE (for image editing), iSee Media PhotoVista 2.02 (for panoramic 360 degree images) and Pinnacle Studio 8 SE (for video editing). The problem with this is, as far as we can tell, Pinnacle Studio 8 SE can not import or use .asf files. This means that for the Pocket Multi-Cam, this included video editing software is useless. We imagined some poor, unsuspecting first time buyer spending hours and hours trying to figure out why they couldn’t see their videos with the included software. Windows Movie Maker, included with XP, will import and allow you to work with .asf files however. If you have Windows XP, you’re in luck. Otherwise, you’d have to buy your own video editing software to do it. From what we can tell, Pinnacle Studio 8 SE is a fine program, but it won’t do you any good if you own a DV-S20.
Our Recommendation
The DV-S20 Pocket Multi-Cam is not intended for super high quality photos, prints or videos. If you’re in the market for the best imaging, this is not the device for you. However, this device is quite useful for someone who wants to have a still and video camera handy at all times. It’s small, light, and under the right conditions, takes good images and videos. It’s very easy to use and you can quickly get videos and images to your computer and on the Internet. Its use of AA batteries and included accessories are nice, and the extras included in the $39.99 accessory pack are useful. With the price of flash memory plummeting every week, it isn’t too expensive to add extra storage to the device. At $199, it makes a great gift for a teen, college student or someone who wants to be able to capture life’s moments at all times, without carrying bulky equipment. The price is about half as much as lower end true digital video cameras, putting it in its own category. We think that for the most part the DV-S20 achieves its intended purpose and the cost is reasonable.
Note: sample images and video can be found on the “Performance” page.
Latest Reviews
Helpful User Reviews
- Not Impressed at all... - 0 people found this user review helpful.
- A toy, nothing more - 0 people found this user review helpful.
- Learn how to use it - 0 people found this user review helpful.
- Camera deleated pictures - 0 people found this user review helpful.
- Need "DVS IMPORTER" program - 0 people found this user review helpful.