Veho Muvi Micro DV camcorder review

Veho’s Muvi Micro DV camcorder claims to be the world’s smallest, and boldly goes where other cams fear to tread. But can this small wonder deliver a big performance? Find out in our Veho Muvi Micro DV review.

It’s a bit of a surprise that the Veho Muvi Micro DV hasn’t made more of a stir, given its grand claim of being the smallest camcorder in the world. So how small is small, we hear you ask? Well, at 5.5cm tall it’s just over half the height of the Flip Mino. More significantly, it’s also about as thick as a thumb, which is smaller than, well, just about anything.

Of course, there is such a thing as too small – as owners of the new iPod shuffle will testify. But the Veho Muvi Micro DV’s size isn’t for no reason – it’s aimed directly at the outdoors and extreme sports market, and is invariably more comfortable up a mountain than down the pub.

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Its size means controls on the Veho Muvi Micro DV itself are limited. There’s a record button on the top next to a single LED, a mini-USB port on the bottom, a power switch on one side and on the other, beside a microSD card slot, is a voice activation switch.

When it is switched on, the Veho Muvi Micro DV will start recording when it detects any noise above 65dB, so you can start recording simply by talking to it, leaving your hands free to carry on scaling Everest or cycling through a ravine undisturbed. It worked well in our tests, which admittedly weren’t on the planet’s biggest mountain.

Like most entry-level pocket cams, clips are recorded in AVI format at 640 x 480. Battery life is pegged at three hours, though the supplied 2GB microSD card will fill up in about half that.
Performance-wise, we thought the Veho Muvi Micro DV’s size would inevitably mean sub-standard video quality, but in fairness our outdoor clips came out well balanced and detailed given the resolution. Low light performance was decent too, though it did struggle switching between them – such as when cycling through trees. Sound quality is acceptable too, but it’s easy to block the microphone accidentally.

The lack of surface space on the camera means there’s no screen, and the single LED shines in no fewer than nine different ways to deliver information to you, but that’s largely unavoidable.
There are certainly better specialist sports cameras, but none at this kind of price, and none as small. The Veho Muvi Micro DV takes video to places it has no rights being, and is well worth the asking price.