Performance
Barely a second after flipping out the LCD screen and the camcorder is ready to go. The A100F exhibits good colour fidelity, giving a vibrant image without over-saturating hues. Autoexposure is quick and flexible, coping well with sudden changes from light to dark environments. White balance is generally reliable, struggling occasionally with indoor lighting.
The 10x optical zoom might not seem much compared to the 30x or more zooms on the market, but the A100F has plenty of reach and stays pleasingly stable all the way. The zoom is quick to respond and nuanced enough to either tiptoe or crash in on a subject. The autofocus occasionally lags behind the zoom, meaning that in crowded frames it's best to point the camera at the subject and let it focus before zooming. Zooming on an area of a high-contrast, busy frame tends to outfox the autofocus so blurry areas fill the frame and take a while to adjust.
In low light, the A100F does reasonably well without standing out, with a little too much motion blur when panning. The lamp manages not to be too harsh, but then it isn't particularly strong either, illuminating subjects a few metres away but not much futher. Noise is an issue in shadow areas of the frame in darker situations, but isn't overpowering.
Conclusion
The A100F competes with the sublime Sony HDR-SR8 on memory size, although Sony has trumped the 100GB pair with the 120GB HDR-SR12, arriving shortly. The Sony SR8 also includes a viewfinder and hotshoe for advanced operation, but the Toshiba is simpler to use for everyday filming and substantially cheaper.
So while the basic features and lack of expandability mean filmmakers won't be shooting their next epics on this camera, it is a beautifully-styled, respectably performing excellent HD camcorder for the everyday shooter.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday
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