Toshiba Camileo Pro review

The Camileo Pro can be thought of as a digital Swiss army knife.

It's a camcorder, camera, webcam, voice recorder, MP3 player, eBook reader and mass storage device. There's only 64MB of built-in memory, but you can easily add more using an SD or SDHC memory card.

Video is compressed using MPEG4; the best quality setting is a 640x480 resolution at a bit rate of 3.6Mbit/s. Unfortunately, we found the Camileo Pro slow to change exposure levels, and it tended to overexpose shots. The video compression also makes a mess of fast pans and is little better than the video modes on many digital cameras. The results are fine for use online, but viewing on a TV isn't recommended.

Photos are better, with a native image resolution of 3,072x2,304 thanks to the 7-megapixel CCD. However, our efforts often looked a little blurry and lacked the detail we'd expect from a digital camera at this price. There's no proper flash, just a weak LED light, which is also used by the camcorder in dim light. The 3x optical zoom is hardly generous for a camcorder and the 4x digital zoom cuts in without warning, causing a loss of image quality.

Voice recording works fine, storing intelligible dialogue. The MP3 player is easy to use, once you get the hang of the poorly labelled controls, and it sounds passable. However, we can't imagine reading an eBook of any length on the small 2in display.

The Camileo is easy to set up as a webcam, thanks to the included mini-tripod. This has flexible legs and could come in handy when taking photos or filming. Also included are a set of headphones, a soft carrying pouch, AV and USB leads and a USB charger. Fully charged, the battery lasted for a respectable two hours and 11 minutes of continuous video recording.

Toshiba's Camileo Pro does more than other camcorders. However, you may find that your mobile phone and digital camera can already achieve most of its functions. If you primarily want a camcorder, hold off until you've read our Labs test of camcorders in next month's issue.

Author: Seth Barton