Toshiba Camileo Pro HD Camcorder

Like the other reviewer above, I purchased this camcorder based on the number of positive reviews out there. To be honest though I was really disappointed.
The reason for upgrade, was to replace a 5 year old JVC GR-DX27EK mini DV camcorder with a sticky zoom (originally £200), but the camileo Pro HD was no replacement, it is basically a toy with good connection possiblities, or ideal for Youtube and the like, I wanted to use the camera for quick connections, and to take indoor video of my baby-to-be which is due soon, in the hour that I tested it, I took five videos, the colour was saturated, there were extreme focusing problems, the 3 x optical zoom was woefully inadequate. I did take some quick video of outdoors, and that worked ok but the quality was not excellent.
The build quality was ok and understandable for the price, but ultimately this left me so disappointed that I decided to return it.
If you want to take fun videos, then this may fit the bill, but for ok… more »

Like the other reviewer above, I purchased this camcorder based on the number of positive reviews out there. To be honest though I was really disappointed.
The reason for upgrade, was to replace a 5 year old JVC GR-DX27EK mini DV camcorder with a sticky zoom (originally £200), but the camileo Pro HD was no replacement, it is basically a toy with good connection possiblities, or ideal for Youtube and the like, I wanted to use the camera for quick connections, and to take indoor video of my baby-to-be which is due soon, in the hour that I tested it, I took five videos, the colour was saturated, there were extreme focusing problems, the 3 x optical zoom was woefully inadequate. I did take some quick video of outdoors, and that worked ok but the quality was not excellent.
The build quality was ok and understandable for the price, but ultimately this left me so disappointed that I decided to return it.
If you want to take fun videos, then this may fit the bill, but for ok videos, and the occasional good indoor video, don't bother with this camera.

Ok, I've had this camera for a few days now and I'm mostly pleased with the results. The camera itself is light and fits neatly in the palm of your hand. I was recording 720p hd within a couple of minutes of opening the box. This camera is "Great for the price" and that's what you need to remember.. the price. It's a known brand that records HD, and for the money you can't ask more really. This isn't a camera for a professional, or for someone that's going to take hours and hours of footage and needs it to be of excellent quality. But if you're going to use it now and then and your going to have fun with it.. then it's fine. If you need something that's of a higher quality... then you're looking at 3-4 times the price. I have to be honest.. the indoor quality is not brilliant. It's quite dark and grainy unless in bright light. I took this camera out today to my local park. It was a bright day and had been snowing from the night before. The quality in this environment was......… more »

Ok, I've had this camera for a few days now and I'm mostly pleased with the results. The camera itself is light and fits neatly in the palm of your hand. I was recording 720p hd within a couple of minutes of opening the box. This camera is "Great for the price" and that's what you need to remember.. the price. It's a known brand that records HD, and for the money you can't ask more really. This isn't a camera for a professional, or for someone that's going to take hours and hours of footage and needs it to be of excellent quality. But if you're going to use it now and then and your going to have fun with it.. then it's fine. If you need something that's of a higher quality... then you're looking at 3-4 times the price. I have to be honest.. the indoor quality is not brilliant. It's quite dark and grainy unless in bright light. I took this camera out today to my local park. It was a bright day and had been snowing from the night before. The quality in this environment was...... excellent. Crisp, clear, sharp pictures with lots of detail. Much better with a steady hand, so if you have a tripod I would suggest the results to be rather impressive. On the downside i'm yet to find a pause button for recording.. this is a bit of a pain as every time you stop, you create a separate movie when you start recording again. The 3x zoom is pretty sad and the user manual has about 2 pages in English... so if you're a technophobe... beware. So.... you've recorded your HD footage and you want to view it at home. My PC just managed to play back the HD. The requirement is Pentium 4 3GHz or higher, at least 512mb of memory and 256mb minimum graphics card. The footage on my 37" LCD and on the PC looked great (outdoors)... again, indoor footage was slightly disappointing. Footage is recorded in MP4 format. Easily converted to DVD with Nero 8 Essentials which came with the camera. HD footage can only be viewed either directly from the camera connected to a LCD TV (via component cable included) or on a PC..... however if you have a XBOX 360 this is a real gem. Once you copy your files to your PC they will be named ".MP4". If you rename the file to a ".AVI" then your xbox 360 will recognise this and play it in glorious HD (provided you have a HDTV of course). This is extremely useful for storage and playback of the footage. HD footage can then be played back by copying the avi file onto a cd/dvd or memory card for playback through the 360.... or stream it to the 360 via windows media player or media centre... this is a great way to share and show off your video's to friends. Not highly recommended if you want to do lots of indoor or low light recording. Overall.. It's an "OK" HD camera that's great value and provides good results in daylight conditions. Oh... and you'll need to but a SDHC memory card if you want to record more that a few minutes of video, there's some great deals on these cards at the minute!!