The Toshiba X100 is the latest HD camcorder from the Japanese electronics maestros, and despite its relatively lightweight price tag, it packs in some intriguing features, including full 1080p recording at 60fps, 4GB of built-in storage space, a touchscreen and a nifty time lapse mode. Read the full Toshiba X100 review for the in-depth lowdown on this dinky digital memory-saver.
The Toshiba X100 feels a touch plasticky when you first slide it out of the box, but any fears about built quality quickly melt away when you whack in the rechargeable battery and start putting it through its paces. The 3-inch screen, for instance, delivers a clear image and responds nicely to touch – sure, it’s no iPhone, but you can flick through setting menus and stored videos easily enough. The 10x optical zoom is smooth and the autofocus locks onto subjects speedily.
As mentioned, there’s a decent 4GB of solid state storage built in (enough for 48 minutes of 1080p footage, or an hour of 720p) and you can expand this by a further 32GB via SDHC card if you wish. A mini HDMI port lets you whiz this footage directly onto your HDTV screen – and unlike most camcorders, the Toshiba X100 actually comes with the necessary cable supplied in the box.
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So a bumper crop of features, no doubt – but what about performance? Well, the Toshiba X100 is basically a point-and-shoot model that’s extremely simple to operate: you just direct it towards your subject and hit the (slightly stiff) record button. You can use the touchscreen to alter the white balance, scene mode etc., but leaving everything set to auto seems to work well enough. The aforementioned time lapse mode lets you set the Toshiba X100 on a tripod and record hours of activity at 1, 3 or 5 second intervals.
There’s a choice between recording quality that includes 1080p/60fps, 1080i/60fps and 720p/60fps, and we found that all looked pretty good when played back on our 40-inch telly. Given that Tosh’s figures put 1080p and 1080i as taking up exactly the same amount of storage space, we’re not sure what the real difference between them is here – we certainly can’t see a boost in smoothness.
Footage isn’t utterly amazing, but in good lighting things look sharp and clean – and that’s all you can ask for from a £250 camcorder. You can also take still pictures using the 10-megapixel CMOS (and flash if necessary), and these look decent, if slightly flat.
