Already available elsewhere in the world, the Toshiba P100 and B10 (finally) land on U.S shores. The pair of camcorders cater to the entry-level market, but they take different paths: the B10 is the more affordable of the two ($120) and looks like a Flip camera. It has a 5 Megapixel sensor and no optical zoom, but it is smarter than the Flip. The B10 can recognize faces and even has a built LED light for those low-light situations.The P100 looks more like a classic camcorder and has an obviously bigger (and better) lens that the B10. It has a 5X optical zoom, and a 3″ Swivel LCD display that lets users snap a video at an odd angle, without breaking one’s back. It comes with a 8 Megapixel sensor that should do better in dim lighting, although that’s an LED light that I’m seeing just below the lens. The P100 can also recognize faces, and it does pretty much everything that the B10 can do. The better lens is really what justifies the price difference ($180).
Both camcorders can be used as webcams, and they are compatible with Windows or Mac OS.