Sony Bloggie MHS-CM5: Pistol-Grip Camcorder Is Slow on Draw
Sunday, July 18 2010
Sony’s $200 Bloggine MHS-CM5 has a pistorl grip design and a 5X-optical-zoom lens; its a dual memory cars slot accept both SD/SDHC and memory stick. A built-in USB connector swings out from a side compartmet.
The Bloggie shoots 1080p MPEG-4 video at 30 frames per second-plus 720p video at 60 fps and 30 fps, 460×480 VGA video at 30 fps, and 5 megapixel still photos. A 1-second shutter lag make image capture an adventure, but picture quality is okay and the unit’s Steady-Shot digital stabilization reduces incidental shakiness.
Video capture work fine in well-it settings. In bright indoor lighting, the bloggie’s 1080p video is a bit darker and less sharp then we’d have lived. The 5X-optical-zoom lens is a great spec for a pocket camcorder. Auto-focus strugled a bit at the telephoto end of the zoom, but it locked on a sharp image after a second or so of searching. the zoom was by far the smoothest we’ve ever seen on a pocket camcorder.
In low light, the Bloggie produced grainy footage that had a yellow tint, with poor color accuracy.
The Bloggie reproduced clear sound, but the built-in microphone remains sensitive to wind, and overall audio sounds a bit hollow. The Bloggie doesn’t offer an external mic-in capability.
Flipping the 2.5-inch LCD screen open powers on the camcorder, and flipping it closed turns it off-a neat (and fast) trick. the camcorder’s face-detection option allow you to optimize in-camera exposure settings, and its Steady-Shot stabilization worked extremely well.
The Bloggie’s impressive design and spec sheet, however, don’t place this pocket camcorder with the best competing models, owing to its mediocre video quality in bright light and low light.
