I had been talking to my family last summer about the need to replace my old and bulky Sanyo Video Camera.
Obviously someone took note and on Christmas morning I was presented with the Toshiba Camileo H30 Camcorder along with a 8GB card. I was pleasantly surprised with the gift and was soon opening the packaging to examine the contents, which were plentiful. Apart from the Camcorder there was the power adapter, both for the UK and for Europe, a lens cover, a cloth pouch, a battery, an USB cable for connection from the Camcorder to a computer, a set of Audio/Video leads for connection to the TV and best of all a HDMI cable to display your HD recorded content on to a HD Ready TV.

There was also the expected multi-lingual manual as well as the warranty booklet. If like me, you prefer just to get stuck into the hardware, without consulting the manual, then be prepared for the scratching of your head, trying to locate the battery cover. When finally found, the battery can only go in one way. Once in, I pressed the power on switch and the unit burst into life. As is usual, the first thing to be done, is to set the time and date but after that, off I went. I pressed the "record" button and started recording but after 30 seconds it stopped. No more space on internal memory. Luckily, I had the 8GB card which had to be slid into a port behind the battery.

I switched the Camcorder back on and began to examine the different menus. The first thing that I noticed was that the settings menu could be entered by using either the buttons and dials or by the touch screen display. What wasn't immediately obvious was that although I could move through the settings and options on the touchscreen display, I couldn't finalize the setting by this method and had to revert to the buttons.
I don't quite see the point of the touchscreen facility if all you can do is scroll through the menus

The Camcorder has the ability to record video in full HD at a top setting of 1920 x 1080p or it can be used as a "Digital still camera", with a maximum setting of 10 megapixels. The recorded media at both these settings is simply superb with the images crisp and clear but there is a "but"......

As long as the Camcorder is used in natural daylight, then the user will be totally impressed but use the unit indoors, the quality is very much reduced. The recorded video becomes very dark and grainy and even with lights on, the quality is not enhanced to any great degree. The still photos suffer from the same problem but not to the same extent, as there is a built in flash.