It seems like everyone's now got a reason to use a digital camcorder, from the citizen journalist to the kid's-first-steps documenter. Luckily, shooting high-definition video has never been easier or more affordable. The Toshiba Camileo S30 ($179.99 direct) is a pocket camcorder aimed at that crowd, and it's got plenty of advantages: it looks and feels like a camcorder thanks to a big, 3-inch flip-out LCD and a pistol-grip body, and it packs a huge load of features and options. Where the Camileo suffers, though, is in its too-complicated interface and only-average video quality. Unless you truly prefer the Camileo's form factor, you're better off buying a Cisco Flip UltraHD ($149.99-199.99, 3.5 stars) or the Editors' Choice Sony Bloggie Touch 8GB ($179.99-199.99, 4 stars), both of which deliver better user experiences and higher video quality.

Design and Usability
At first glance, the closed Camileo S30 is a thin, rectangular candy bar, like the Flip or the Bloggie Touch. It measures 4.3 by 2.4 by 0.8 inches (HWD), and at 4.9 ounces is certainly pocketable—in your hand, it feels like a smartphone. It's made of plastic, black on the front and back and silver on the sides, and while it feels a little flimsy at first, in use it's very sturdy.

Once you flip out its 3-inch touch screen, the Camileo starts to feel more like a "real" digital camcorder than a Flip-like pocket camcorder. When closed the screen covers the Power button (which you don't need, since opening and closing the screen automatically turns the camcorder on and off), a shooting mode toggle, the File Upload button, and the battery door. When it's open, the screen swivels 360 degrees, letting you shoot at any angle; it's a nice feature to have if you take self portraits or do any video blogging.

The camcorder is meant to be held in your right hand while you shoot, which explains the location of most of the controls. Because of this design, it's not very southpaw-friendly. On the back are the Record button, a toggle switch for still image and video recording, a zoom slider, a Pause button, a button for the LED light, and a panel that hides mini-HDMI, TV out, and mini-USB ports. All are easy to press with your thumb while you're recording. On top, similarly easy to reach with your thumb, are a switch to turn the Camileo's macro mode on and off and the SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot cover—there's only 128MB of internal storage, but the slot accepts cards up to 64GB. There's a tripod mount on the bottom, and the lens and flash are on the front.

Getting the S30 powered on and shooting is a dead-simple process: When you flip out the LCD viewfinder, the camcorder turns on (with a loud "ding!") and is ready to shoot in about two seconds. Shooting is just as simple: press the record button (the same button starts recording or snaps a photo, depending on the shooting mode you're in), and press it again to stop shooting. Much of the interaction with menus and options takes place on the touch-enabled 3-inch LCD, but the interface is far from user-friendly. Menus are lists of icons—one tap shows the name of the icon and another selects it, so every selection requires two taps. Most of the icons look alike, too, so it's hard to learn which ones to use.

Buried in the chaos are plenty of options and settings. A motion-sensing option will start recording video whenever it senses motion. There's a slow-motion mode for catching fast action, a time-lapse mode, a number of art filters for photos and video, and more. There are a lot of granular controls available as well—white balance, resolution, ISO, scene modes, and more can all be tweaked—but the interface is so complicated many of the options are hard to use. Make no mistake: This isn't a simple Flip-like user experience.