Toshiba Camileo P30 August 2009

Check out our video review of the Toshiba Camileo P30 below:

 

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The Toshiba Camileo P30 is a bit heavier and wider than the Flip and Kodak, but it does have certain key advantages. First and foremost, there’s its 5x optical zoom. The other camcorders in this class rely on digital zooming to get you close – but using this degrades the quality of your video. Optical zoom is much better, and will get you close in a variety of shooting situations, not least indoors at parties.

When you’re at a party and the light is dim, you’ll also be able to benefit from the built-in video lamp – a feature that even some ‘full-size’ HD camcorders lack.

The Toshiba Camileo P30’s main selling point, though, is the full-HD recording. Unfortunately, image stabilisation isn’t available with this setting, so try to keep the device as steady as possible when recording.

Video quality on the whole is pretty good when you consider the camcorder’s price. Levels of detail are quite good and colours are fairly accurate, but the camcorder does tend to underexpose a little, so video is slightly too dark. If you come across underexposure (or, indeed, overexposure) when recording, you can change the settings in the menu to compensate.

Focusing, on the whole, is good; the Camileo P30 focuses quickly and accurately most of the time.

We didn’t expect great sound quality from a small camcorder like this, but we were pleasantly surprised to find the sound from the P30 was clear, and significantly superior to the sound produced by the Kodak.

Another bonus is the ability to take 5Mp still images, while we also liked the 2.5-inch, twistable LCD screen.

Unlike the Kodak and Flip, the P30 doesn’t stand up by itself unaided – the weight of the screen makes it topple over. However, you can use the supplied mini tripod to hold it up. We had a slightly more serious ease-of-use gripe with the positioning of the central wheel that acts as the zoom control and the menu-access button – it is not too difficult to press the menu access button accidentally as you’re trying to zoom.

After you’ve taken your footage, you can play it back on an HDTV with the supplied HDMI cable, or upload to YouTube after installing the supplied software on your computer. The software is very handy and quite easy to use, though we found uploading full-HD video to be slow.

Sadly, the P30 comes with a tiny internal memory, and no supplied memory card – you’ll need to buy one as soon as possible if you want to record videos of more than a few seconds in length.

Pros: Portable, optical zoom, software for easy YouTube uploading, decent video and sound

Cons: Internal memory small (though expandable), no lens cover

For more information on HD camcorders, check out our in-depth, lab-based reviews.