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With the Camileo Pro HD's lack of features and low price, we weren't expecting particularly impressive video quality. In good light, however, the results are quite passable. Reds and orange are a little too heavily saturated, and bright regions blown out, but there is a reasonable level of detail. The zoom is very slow and the exposure control also sluggish, with a small but noticeable lag when adjusting to new lighting conditions. The Toshiba doesn't acquit itself so well in poor illumination, either. In a room lit with a single 100W tungsten bulb, the image is very dark, even with exposure on maximum. The level of grain isn't that high, but it's clear why the Camileo Pro HD has a built-in video light. Overall, though, video performance was better than we were expecting for the price.

For editing, a regular USB 2.0 connection is provided to drag clips onto your PC. Since the Camileo records its MPEG-4 H.264 video in MP4 format, however, rather than AVCHD, the footage is not as widely supported in editing applications. CyberLink's PowerDirector 7 had no trouble coping with it, but neither Pinnacle's Studio Plus 11.1.2 nor Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 could import the files. Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 thought the MP4 files only contained audio. Toshiba includes Nero 8 Essentials, however, which can at least burn footage to disc.

If you want to watch your video on a TV, a minijack is available for analogue video output, with a cable supplied for composite video and RCA audio. For HD, a second minijack works in tandem with a second cable, offering component analogue video connections.

Verdict

The Camileo Pro HD's lack of features and poor video performance in non-optimal conditions mean it doesn't really warrant the ‘Pro' in its name. But then you're not paying anything like a Pro-level price, either. At under £150, the Toshiba isn't far off a compact digital camera. Yet it can shoot much better video than any still image snapper or mobile phone. So whilst this isn't the camcorder to kick-start your own videomaking business, it's exceptional value for shooting video destined for YouTube.

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