Mustek DV300T Multi-Functional Compact Digital Camcorder

Having only recently posted about AgfaPhoto’s DV-5000G compact digital camcorder and how we’re not entirely sold on the idea of fusing additional, otherwise unrelated functionalities into such devices, along comes the 6-in-1 DV300T from Mustek which, apart from serving as a low entry digital camcorder also comes with an integrated music player and text reader capabilities.

Essentially appearing to be a somewhat lower spec version of Mustek’s DV520T (and its title would seem to corroborate this), the DV300T sports an F.28 aperture ratio lens offering ‘3.1 mega pixel interpolated resolution’ (worryingly, its non-interpolated ‘true’ resolution is not provided), 8x digital zoom (no apparent optical zoom capabilities) and 64MB on onboard storage expandable courtesy of an SD card slot.

So far, so…well, dull actually (let’s be honest here).

So can the fact that this device has stills camera capabilities save the DV300T from the grey swamp of absolute gadget mediocrity? Actually, no – it’s hardly as if it’s a mind blowing ‘extra’ is it? How about ‘text reader’ capabilities? One question – why? Ok, how about the fact that this plays MP3’s? Again, sorry, but to quote a certain Shania Twain (merely, it would seem, because we can) ‘that don’t impress me much’.

Obviously aimed at the casual user, to put it somewhat mildly, the DV300T, certainly from what we have read via Mustek’s official site, just doesn’t do anything for us. Like so many products out there it simply strikes us as being somewhat of an afterthought designed to cash in on a particular market share (ie, the YoTube generation) and, in so being, very much like the previously referred to DV-5000G from AgfaPhoto, it wholly fails to set our pulses racing quite as must as the Flip Camcorder did on its release.

No details concerning a release date or unit pricing concerning the Mustek DV300T are available at the time of writing but, certainly as far as we are concerned (and based on Mustek’s own sales pitch concerning the device), its our opinion that nothing except an especially low price point can possibly make the DV300T worth even the vaguest of considerations – and, with that in mind, we await official word from Mustek regarding pricing details with great interest.

It all hinges on the price.

Mustek