Summary: Cheap Build & Poor Video

Comment: It has been almost 15 months since I received one of these as part of a large conference promotional give away. I can honestly say this camera is terrible in every aspect.

At the conference, about 650 of these cameras were distributed to attendees. The new out of box failure rate was over 10%. Those units had to be returned for a new one and a few of those had to be returned.

The camera has a cheap feel throughout with a noticeable poor build quality. From the buttons to the plastic door covering access to the battery and SD card to the lens and LCD screen.

Video quality compares to my camera phone which is unusable in poor light and mediocre in bright sunlight. About the only good thing you can say would be the ease of making small clips and then uploading them from the SD card to the web. They are recorded in a ready to use mpeg format. Audio is ok but there is no option for an external microphone.

The battery life is also poor and it doesn't hold a charge over several weeks between uses. Any use must be planned in 12 hours advance to allow for charging.

Honestly, you can find true video cameras such as Canon MiniDV - Canon ZR800 MiniDV Camcorder with 35x Optical Zoom
- models on Amazon for a few pennies more and feature rich models for about double. Look for them and skip the Mustek. (If the price point was about 29.95 then I would give it 5 stars. Instead it gets one.)

Summary: Good for the price

Comment: I bought this camera 2 years ago and I have had no functionality problems. The reason I give it a 4 is because of the price.

Granted, it has no optical zoom (but my limited knowledge at the time that I bought it kept that from disturbing me), so if you want to zoom in, it's better just to try to get close to whatever you're taking a picture of. Despite it being a somewhat low MP, the quality of the pictures are quite nice. I've been pleased with it. However, it is not so good with action pictures. It does better when you have it in the action setting, but it still has issues sometimes. Great for portraits. No need to worry about dark pictures, the flash is crazy strong. Sometimes it's better not to use the flash, even when in slightly dim light.

The video quality is so-so, but works for the sake of taking small segments of whatever you need to record (though I think the microphone being on top of the camera is a slight design flaw). I have a number of videos that are worth keeping.

The voice recording has proved useful. My husband used to take recordings of my orchestra concerts from quite far away in the auditorium, and the quality came out pretty decently. You need to make sure that you aren't tapping the camera or shifting around too much when doing so, but setting the camera down on something and recording works well.

If you have a large enough memory card, the mp3 player is useful. I think it's a fun little feature.

I used it as a webcam a couple of times. The only real flaw with that is that when the USB cord is plugged into the front, it pulls the camera down, so you have to be careful and position it effectively on the tripod while using that function.

I like that it comes with AV cords to hook up to the tv. And the rechargable battery is one feature that I will look for in future cameras because I hate replacing batteries and it lasts longer than regular rechargable AAs or AAAs (whatever the camera might take). The buttons on it are a little tough to deal with sometimes because the arrows are sensitive and the buttons on the inside of the screen aren't quite sensitive enough. But once you get the hang of it, it's fine.

Basically, after two years of owning it and using it thoroughly, I would like something with newer technology (more MP, nice optical zoom, that sort of thing), but I would still keep this camera as a secondary. When I bought it, it was $175, and I think it was well worth it.

Summary: Great Camera!

Comment: I am really impressed with the quality of both the still images and the Video that this camera is capable of producing. It's like I bought the Sony DCR DVD505 for half the price! I definitely think that it's worth the money. It also looks very stylish and I love the docking function.

Summary: MUSTEK GARBAGE

Comment: The DV5500 is a piece of garbage _ the day I got it it wouldn't focus right and I called for help and they told me I was shaking and that's why pictures weren't clear, I used the tripod and took a video and it did improve somewhat, I put the camera in it's docking station and about 5 months later tried to use it again and found out it WAS NOT FOCUSING AT ALL so I called them again, the FIRST thing they asked was WHEN I bought it and since it was over a year, they said it was OUT OF WARRANTY and they DID NOT FIX any out of warrantry cameras, in other words THROW it AWAY because no one else does either. I wouldn't buy another MUSTEK product if they gave it away

Summary: Not worth the headache

Comment: I've had this camera for 6 days and I have already had to return it. It wouldn't stay on.....just kept shutting off. Mustek kept giving me the run around when I tried to return it, and then had the nerve to ask for 3 copies of my receipt. I can't tell ya how well the camera performs cause I haven't had the chancec to use it, but so far its a big fat Zero.