Toshiba Camileo H20: A proper camcorder, but cheaper

The Toshiba Camileo H20 is a traditionally styled camcorder with a large screen, and it shoots 1080p video. Nothing remarkable about that -- until you see the price

Richard Trenholm

Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.

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Richard Trenholm

March 18, 2009 10:33 a.m. PT

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The Toshiba Camileo H20 is a full high-definition camcorder that'll set you back less than £200 quid. That's fighting talk where we come from.

The H20 shoots 1080p video at 30 frames per second. It will also shoot 848x480 pixels at 60fps and 320x240 pixels for easy sharing. There's also a 5x zoom. With its large screen and proper camcorder features, there's none of the compromises forced by the size of your Flip Minos or Creative Vados.

For the price, the H20 looks pretty slick, too: the chrome accents and black body are set off by a vivid scarlet tab on the fold-out screen. It does feel rather plasticky, though. Don't be fooled by the grippy lens ring: that's just for show, as you can't make adjustments with it.

It's the standard barrel-grip form factor, with a non-removable hand-strap. The strap is plenty adjustable, and we found it perfectly comfortable, but you should probably try it yourself before you buy, because if you don't like it you're stuck with it.

You can alter white balance and exposure, but not much else. The H20 records to SD and SDHC cards, with an 8GB card holding 2 hours 15 minutes of full HD, or nearly 3 hours 45 minutes of lower resolution.

Click through our pictures for more on the Camileo H20, including the all-important price tag.

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The H20 comes in a swish foam-padded box. This is a review sample, though, so it's rather scuffed.

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The camera sits neatly in its foam padding.

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The side of the H20 has a rubberised, pimpled face for extra grippiness.

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The screen is a fold-out 76mm (3-inch) LCD.

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Slide up the slider in the screen well...

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...and reveal the HDMI, TV and USB outputs.

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All the controls are located towards the back, with a circular control pad and OK button doing most of the work. The record button is set to the right, and the stills capture control is on the top with the zoom rocker. There's a power control in the screen well, but opening and closing the screen also turns the camera on and off.