After almost two years of digital camera hell (see my review of the
SiPix SC-2100 for more on that), my wife convinced me to shelve the old digital. She saw the ads Gateway was running around the beginning of the year for a 5 megapixel camera for under $300 (after rebate). With a big trip to
London coming up, we wanted a small, reliable digital to take along. The SiPix SC-2100 obviously would not cut it and our excellent Nikon 2002 SLR was rather bulky to carry around.
We went to our nearest Gateway store (no longer around since Gateway has shuttered their retail outlets) and tested it out. I have to give Gateway a slight knock here since this is the second time they’ve gotten out of the retail business. They closed their stores a few years ago only to reopen in new locations a little bit later. This schizophrenic practice is surely one reason they’re not doing so well profit-wise.
But, at least while it was there, the store gave us plenty of time to wander around the store with the camera and take as many pictures as we wanted. They also let us do multiple test prints (and keep the copies). It worked just fine in the store so we took it. Along with the $50 rebate, they threw in a free Epson color printer – which is still sitting in it’s box in our garage waiting for the inevitable day that our current Canon printer will die.
Enough about the store and the company, this is a review of the camera.
I’ll go through the points that are important to me and, hopefully, I will cover it enough so that this review can be helpful to you too.
SIZE: Excellent size. Smaller than a pack of cigarettes, it easily fits in a shirt pocket. Our former digital was about the size of those old Kodak Instamatic cameras and a bit on the bulky side. On vacation, it proved very easy to slip inconspicuously into a convenient pocket, especially the one inside my jacket, while not in use.
RESOLUTION: Excellent. Some test pictures of our neighbors proved this when they complained because every pore on their face could be seen in excruciating detail when zoomed in. Aerial pictures of London could be blown up, such as Buckingham Palace from the air, with no appreciable loss in quality.
CAPACITY: With included 32mb chip – poor. I bought a 256mb chip to upgrade and now have excellent capacity – 183 pictures at the standard/high resolution setting on the camera.
SHUTTER SNAP SPEED: Good. Snaps within a couple of seconds. I would like to see this be less but it is still much faster than the old camera.
FLASH RECYCLE SPEED: Very good. Not instantaneously, but within about 5 seconds.
ZOOM: Excellent. A 3x optical zoom keeps the resolution very sharp when used. A 2x digital zoom is also available. The zoom-in is instantaneous when you press the button.
VIEWFINDER: A look through viewfinder is supplemented with a 1.5 inch LCD screen which works in moderately bright daylight.
PLAYBACK: Excellent. On the LCD screen, you can look picture-by-picture or via a proof sheet format that allows you to move a cursor to the picture you’d like to view. The left arrow and right arrow buttons also allow you to rotate the picture 90 degrees in the respective directions for those pictures you take with the camera sideways (like taking a picture of a tall structure). Included cables allow you to plug in the RCA plug of your TV and playback on the TV screen. This is a handy way of editing vacation photos using your hotel TV while you’re still on location.
BATTERY LIFE: Good. Easily lasts the entire day for picture taking but didn’t last when showing the pictures to the in-laws on their TV. This could be better. The recharge only takes an hour or so.
TIMER: An awesome adjustable timer allows you to set any length of time you'd like. Count down red LED on front of camera blinks faster as it counts down to zero. I love this timer.
OTHER FEATURES: The DC-T50 will also function as a video camera. I haven’t really tested this yet but I imagine it will not hold too much video on the memory chips. It also allows you to add a recorded sound file with each picture if you’d like to add your description.
The camera includes the necessary drivers for your PC. Later versions of Windows such as 2000 detect it automatically. Downloading is a snap as your PC treats the camera as an external drive. Simply go to My Computer and move the files over to your hard drive. The connection is USB.
An AC adapter/battery charger is included. It’s compact and easy to carry. A faux-suede carrying case is also included. It has a strap so you can wear it on your belt.
For those wanting more control over the camera, a full range of manual adjustments such as shutter speed, aperture, and focus are available. I haven’t taken advantage of these yet, so I can’t comment on them.
Over all, this is a much better camera than our SiPix could ever hope of being. What complaints I have, regarding battery life or shutter snap speed, are very minor and this camera is very easy to live with. The price was also very easy to take. I do wish the company that made it, Gateway, was in a stronger position to be able to support it. I haven’t had a bit of trouble with it but I don’t look forward to getting service from a company I can only contact via the Internet or phone…hopefully, I’ll never have to find out what that’s like.
