Mustek DV4000 review

18 May 2004 12:03 GMT / By Stuart Miles

The Mustek DV4000 is a low-res pocket-sized camcorder that is ideal for making web videos, playing MP3's or taking still photos. Fitting snugly in the palm of your hand the unit will let you capture those magical moments or merely just have a bit of fun in the park.

The data is captured onto a 2 mega pixel CMOS sensor and the camera offers a 4x digital zoom to give you the impression of some zoom capabilities although the quality of the video footage went down hill considerably when we used it. The camera also offers portrait and macro modes. Video is saved at 640x480 pixels (the same as the majority of mobile phone cameras pictures) and while it isn't advisable to capture the moments you want to keep forever on this, it is ideal for messing around or making videos to send over the web.

Capture and playback is via a flip out 1.5” screen and this reveals the controls. The buttons are large and clear to see and you can scroll through the four functions; MP3 player, voice recorder, digital camera, and video camcorder easily.

Connections offered are USB to the PC and AV for the TV. Surprisingly for a model of this calibre the unit comes with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and charger as well as a 32Mb SDCard, again something that pleasantly surprised us. The removable memory slot means you can expand the storage capability or even turn this into a small portable MP3 player.

Verdict

The best thing about this product is the price and it will allow you relive those American Beauty plastic bag moments for under £100. Admittedly this isn't the best quality camcorder we have seen and the quality is probably equivalent to a digital camera movie mode, but at under £100 you can't really go wrong especially as it records in the next big format MPEG4 and can double up as a webcam when you not out trying to become the next Steven Spielberg.