Kenko releases multi-colored DVC-306 camcorders

Japanese firm Kenko has just announced its DVC-306 camcorder, available in your choice of red, blue, or silver. Also doubling as a 3 megapixel digital still camera, it has the usual smallish 1.5-inch TFT but lacks a optical zoom, relegating it to the world of the irrepressiblylow end .The video quality doesn't seem so hot either shooting in MPEG-4 640x480 at 20fps, but at least you can record a lot of it -- up to 720 minutes on a 2GB SD card. The camera also has 32MB of built-in memory and MP3 playback capabilities. Price is ¥20,000 (about $170 US), but it looks like this is Japan-only, as far as we can tell, like most everything else today.

[F-ZeroOne @ May 29th 2006 4:26PM]

Suggest you check your exchange rates... :-)

[naisho @ May 29th 2006 4:28PM]

Add a "0" to that ¥2,000

¥20,000 = $170 USD

Keep it up though, I love the site!

[jcpb @ May 29th 2006 4:47PM]

Are you really sure about that? Kenko's site says it's capable of ONLY 640x480 at 10fps, NOT 20fps.

http://www.kenko-tokina.co.jp/dsc/spec.html

[Drumr @ May 29th 2006 5:48PM]

looks identical to my DXG-306 which i got from radioshack for about $100 a while ago.

http://www.dxgtech.com/product_DVC.php?paraFocus=221x220

pretty old news...

[Drumr @ May 29th 2006 5:52PM]

sorry... link to radioshack...

http://www.radioshack.com/sm-dxg-dxg-305v-digital-video-recorder--pi-2110964.html

that cam is very available in the US...

[mathew @ May 29th 2006 5:57PM]

20 fps, 10 fps... either way, it's crap.

[Nipponese @ May 29th 2006 6:00PM]

#3, if you go to their produst page, it does say it records in 20fps.
http://www.kenko-tokina.co.jp/dsc/306/siyou.html

[Scott @ May 29th 2006 6:32PM]

Available at WallyWorld for $98, too.

[Reid Sorenson @ May 29th 2006 10:44PM]

I have the DXG camera that looks virtually identical to this one. Video quality is for sux.

[Perrey Z. @ May 30th 2006 4:06AM]

Wal-Mart carry these under the DXG OEM brand, eve the model numbers are similar., the usual stock is normally in Black, but this Sunday's sales add they added the Blue one and per Wal-Mart's word the Pink one as a "One Time Offer" deal. The thing is, if they are at Wal-Mart for $98.97 then they are not really Japanese, but OEM made in China then imported by Kenko to Japan. Wal-Mart is not known for selling quality goods for cheap.

[hitkaiser @ May 30th 2006 6:32AM]

I still don't see the point of such cameras, if you are going to bother recording something, why not do it with a proper camera? Its not like you would want to record your baby's first words in sub-par quality!