Digital Trends

Gateway DV-S20

October 29th, 2003 | by Jeff Fila

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.

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 (1600x1200 or 800x600), 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.