Mustek DV5500 camcorder

Big is beautiful? Not in this case...

This camera is to digital photography what hippos are to the animal kingdom - fat and pointless. On the surface, this chunky device looks pretty versatile thanks to its ability to capture photos and video, act as a voice recorder and play MP3s, but it's all a bit of a ruse because it doesn't do any of these jobs well enough to justify the asking price. For example, you need hands as steady as a brain surgeon to capture in-focus images with the awful three-megapixel CCD, and, despite the fact that it uses MPEG-4 technology for capturing video, the results are still dodgy. It may look like a bargain, but the reality is that you get what you pay for. Save your pennies for a proper digital camcorder.

Posted by T3 Online on 2005-04-05