Review: Toshiba Camileo Pro HD digital camcorder

Toshiba’s HD DVD format may have bitten the dust, but the company hasn’t given up the ghost on other high-definition products. It recently launched a range of HD camcorders, including the Camileo Pro HD, which it claims is one of the smallest.

It’s certainly impressive to see an HD camcorder squeezed into such a compact design – even if the resolution is 1,280x720, rather than the full HD resolution of 1,920x1,080.

The Camileo measures 12cm high, 6cm deep and 2.5cm thick, and weighs a mere 200g, so it’s easy to just slip it into your pocket until you’re ready to start shooting.

Video quality is very good – as you’d expect with that resolution – although you’ll need steady hands to get the best results, especially when using the 3x optical zoom. As well as shooting video, the Camileo can act as a five-megapixel still camera and an MP3 player, and can even be used for recording voice notes, so it’s really quite versatile for such an inexpensive device. Video is captured in MP4 format, but all the software you need to capture and play MP4 files on your PC is supplied with the Camileo, including a copy of Nero Essentials.

The only minor drawback is that you’ll need to provide your own SD memory card. The Camileo has just 128MB of built-in memory, which will barely store three and a half minutes of HD video. Toshiba claims a 1GB memory card will store about 30 minutes of HD video (or 72 minutes of standard DVD-resolution video), but you can get a 2GB card for less than £10 these days, so that’s not a major problem.

Serious video buffs might prefer something more robust, and with full HD resolution, but the Camileo is a good, affordable option for quickly shooting high-quality video clips of family and friends.

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