Jan. 9, 2008 - Digital product manufacturer Mustek has launched the hybrid DV550 here at CES. This 5-megapixel model is part digital camera, part camcorder, part MP3 player, and part webcam. It will retail for $149.99 when it becomes available in March.
The DV550 is palm-sized, with a faux-leather covering and flip-out LCD screen, giving it the appearance of a tiny camcorder. It snaps 5-megapixel photos, and is capable of taking JPEGs at a maximum 4032 x 3024-pixel resolution.
It has a 2.5-inch LCD and built-in flash. Shutter speeds range from 1/6 to 1/4000 of a second. Scene modes include Portrait, Macro, and Landscape, and Color modes include Sepia, Black and White, Sketch, and Pastel.
On the camcorder side, the DV550 can record 640 x 480-resolution movies at 30 frames per second, on par with standard digital camera Movie modes. The camera includes 34 MB of internal memory, and accepts SD and SDHC memory cards for added memory.
The DV550 also plays back MP3 and WMV files, acts as a WAV-file voice recorder, and can be used as a webcam. It runs on three AAA batteries.
