Mustek's DV3000 multifunctional digital video camera will fit in your pocket without burning a hole in it. Is it too good to be true? Find out in our Australian review.

Mustek's DV3000 is a multifaceted camera that captures low resolution video, still pictures and can additionally act as a web camera. This gadget will certainly attract attention with its small size and seemingly packed features. Unfortunately if you read Mustek's claims that this device is -state-of-the-art" and expect anything more than webcam-level video quality, and standard still pictures you'll be disappointed. However gadget enthusiasts who love being able to make short e-mail video clips and take pictures on such a small device may well be tempted by the DV3000.

Weighing in at 110 grams without battery and about the size of a pack of cards the device will fit conveniently into most pockets. Though the DV3000 is compact it has a distinctly cheap feel to it. Its plastic casing attempts but fails to look like brushed metal, and the buttons have more than a touch of jiggle to them, which gives you the impression that you're holding a fake camera toy rather than a real digital device.

The controls on the camera are well laid out and the menu screen on the inside of the 1.5" LCD that controls some of the more advanced features is relatively easy to use. With a little trial and error and a quick glance at the manual users won't have any trouble learning how to use the DV3000.

As a digital still camera the 3.1 megapixel DV3000 can take pictures at three resolutions settings: 2048x1536, 1600x1200, and 640x480. When taking pictures we noticed that it took a while for the camera to focus and many of our pictures came out blurred. The DV3000 lacks a flash of any kind, meaning that it's only a practical solution in good natural lighting. The DV3000 has a 2x digital zoom, although as with most digital zooms you're better off taking a non-zoomed picture and adjusting the image later once it's off-camera.

The Mustek DV3000's digital video abilities are mixed. Its maximum resolution of 320x240 means that it's functionally useless for broadcast-quality digital video, but perfectly acceptable for small web-based movie files in its default AVI format. In our testing recordings video came out in an acceptable manner for such a small resolution, and the inbuilt microphone was surprisingly effective. As a web cam the DV3000 stacked up particularly well as it took a relatively short time to get up and running, worked well with other various web camera software, and delivered images that were quite sharp.

The DV3000 uses SD memory for storage, and comes bundled with a 32MB Secure Digital (SD) removable memory card. With its given resolution that's a capacity you'll fill quite quickly, and potential users should factor in the cost of a larger card with the DV3000 unless they want to constantly shuffle files back to a host PC.

Files can either be transferred to PC or viewed on TV via the provided AV cable. Transferring files to the computer via the USB cable was an easy task in Windows XP as the camera allows drag and drop transfers and 32 MB of stored images and video footage was transferred rapidly. Viewing content via the AV cables was also simple to set up and get running with the Mustek DV3000.

The DV3000 runs off two standard AA batteries, which lasted just under a week in our testing. Mileage on batteries will vary considerably depending on the quality of your batteries and the amount of use you put the LCD screen to; shooting video is especially draining. Again, we'd suggest you factor in the cost of a battery recharger into the total cost of the DV3000.

Although the DV3000 does support drag and drop transfers the device comes bundled with Ulead's Photo Express, Photo Explorer, and VideoStudio 6, along with extras such as Real Player and Apple's Quick Time. Although the bundled software is not high end it is not difficult to learn making optimizing photos and video an easy learning curve for less savvy users.

At the end of the day the DV3000 doesn't entirely live up to the promises on the box; it's only an average still camera, a terribly ordinary video camera and its construction could use some more finesse. At AU$499 there are better options on the market today; most of the units in our recent budget digital camera roundup gave better results than the DV3000 could at a lower RRP.

Mustek DV3000 Camera
Company: Mustek
Price: AU$499
Distributor: Natcomp Technology Australia
Phone: (02) 9712 0900

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