Ten of the Best... Pocket Camcorders

Canon FS100

Somewhat surprisingly, Canon’s FS100 is the only standard-definition (720 x 576) resolution camcorder in this group. Most of the sub-£200 camcorders reviewed here compress their video files quite heavily so the image quality isn’t always quite as good as you’d expect. The FS100, however, provides good DVD-quality video that will be suitable for home movie buffs who want to produce more than just simple YouTube snippets. It’s extremely light and compact, and you can just about slip it into a jacket pocket when you’re on the move. The 37x optical zoom is impressive, although the image can get a bit grainy at full zoom. Unfortunately, you’ll need to supply your own memory card before you can get started.

Reg Rating 75%
Price £260 Click to compare prices
More Info Canon Europe

Creative Vado

The design of Creative’s Vado is clearly inspired by the Flip, right down to the built-in USB connector that folds into the body of the camcorder. It has the same 640 x 480 resolution and image quality as the Flip, as well as a 2x zoom option and 2GB internal memory. However, it craftily improves on the Flip by including a rechargeable battery and an option for switching between high- and standard-quality in order to increase the recording time - one hour at high-quality and two hours at standard. It also undercuts the Flip on price, coming in at just under £80. The Vado Central software that lets you upload clips to YouTube is already installed on the camcorder for immediate use, but we were disappointed to see that this only runs on PCs and not Macs.

Reg Rating 55%
Price £80 Click to compare prices
More Info Creative Europe