Toshiba Camileo Z100 review

This is a fun, point-and-shoot camcorder, so there are few manual functions, such as focus, but you can choose between four different white balance settings. We like the Z100’s chunky Record button, and it also has a pre-record buffer which means it actually captures those potentially precious few seconds before you press the button too.

The touchscreen monitor provides little information, which is actually a good thing because it means the low-resolution screen doesn’t become cluttered. You see the battery life indicator and the record time remaining by default, as well as the zoom meter when the zoom lever is moved. Pressing the touchscreen displays a set of options that let you delete videos, choose between movie and still modes, and open the full menu. The icons are low-resolution and chunky, but it’s mostly obvious what they mean.

Sadly, it’s the full menu that somewhat ruins the Z100. Although you only need to tap the touchscreen once to bring up the basic menu and activate the various modes, you must double-tap the icons on the full menu. This inconsistency of control takes some getting used to, and we never really liked double-tapping icons on the full menu because it often meant we accidentally activated options we didn’t want to activate. This made us nervous and we often found ourselves going back in to the menu to check we hadn’t altered something.

The Z100 provides decent image quality in daylight and has good colour reproduction for a cheap camera. Footage does look compressed, but it isn’t so bad as to ruin your video. A lack of image stabilisation does make footage jerky, so this isn’t a camcorder for taking smooth, sweeping pans of landscapes. Its low-light footage isn’t very good, not surprising given the small sensors, showing lots of noise and grain. Still, it’s good enough for hastily shot Facebook and YouTube videos.

The Z100 is a fun and easy to use camcorder in spite of its annoying touchscreen. The lack of an optical zoom is a real drawback, but if you can live without it you’ll find the Z100 an inexpensive way of recording those fun family moments in 3D.