Capture Priceless Moments

When fun happens, the all-new pocket-sized bloggie™ camera lets you capture, upload and share the action in high definition. Swing out the built-in USB arm and connect your camera directly to your compatible PC or Mac. The bloggie camera features a unique lens that swivels up to 270 degrees and instantly powers on the camera when you rotate it outward. It plays nicely with sites like YouTube™, so it's easy to upload your photos and videos to the web.

Product Features

• 1920x1080 HD recording w/5MP still images
• Built-in Picture Motion Browser (PMB) Portable software
• SteadyShot® image stabilization
• Face Detection
• 5MP CMOS image sensor
• 2.4" LCD Screen with full-screen playback
• Convenient, 270 degree Rotating Lens System
• Individual "Movie" and "Still" buttons and dual capture:
• Media Card Slot
• USB 2.0
• Build-in USB arm for upload/charge
• 4.5oz lightweight, pocketable design
• 4x Digital Zoom
• Tripod mount compatible

Product Specs

Sony MHS-PM1’s Review

by pcmag.com

04/13/2010

The Sony Bloggie MHS-PM5 ($169.99 direct) high-definition pocket camcorder offers great image quality, ease of use, and a top-notch design—all at an affordable price. Our Editors’ Choice pocket video camera, the Kodak Zi8 ($179.99), has a slight edge over the Bloggie with a macro focus feature, a microphone input, sightly better video quality, and an HDMI out for digital HD playback on an HDTV. But if you’re simply looking for an inexpensive and reliable pocket camera, the Bloggie is a very solid choice.

Despite being one of the most inexpensive pocket HD camcorders you can buy, the PM5 doesn't feel cheap. It's actually cute; the front and back of the body sport a glossy coating, and the sides are polished chrome. My review model was a deep purple (Eggplant), but you can also opt for White, Pink, or Blue. Measuring 4.4 by 2.25 by .75 inches (HWD), the 4.5-ounce Bloggie is a bit thinner than a deck of cards and fits comfortably in your palm.

One of the camera’s unique features is its pivoting lens, which rotates 270 degrees, so the camera can be used to film the action in front of you, or for self-portraits. No matter which way the lens is facing, the camera’s software orients the image so your subjects are always right side up. Also, twisting the lens automatically powers on the camera, and when it's not being used, it's protected. Like most pocket camcorders, there’s no optical image stabilization (though you do get digital image stabilization), or auto-focus; this means your subject needs to be at least a few inches away from the lens in order to be in focus. The Kodak Zi8 offers a macro option so you can get in closer to shoot. You do get 4x digital zoom, but like many other pocket camcorders, there’s no optical zoom here. The $199.99 Bloggie MHS-CM5 adds a 5x optical zoom lens.

The user interface on the PM5 is a breeze to navigate—Sony is very consistent, using the same solid UI on many of its point-and-shoot cameras, like the Sony DSC-WX1 ($299.99). It’s reminiscent of the XrossMediaBar graphical user interface, on the Sony PlayStation 3 ($299.99).

Sony outfitted the Bloggie with a sharp (230K-dot) 2.4-inch LCD. Inexplicably, however, you can’t use the entire screen to frame your shots while recording video—only the top half of the LCD (about 1.75 inches diagonal) is used to display your image in record mode—the remainder of the screen shows recording information. When the camera is in playback mode, however, images span the full screen. The Bloggie has 26MB of embedded Flash memory, and both Memory Stick PRO Duo and SD/SDHC card slots. A 16GB SD card will cost you about $35, and a same-capacity Memory Stick PRO Duo card goes for about $50 online.

The Bloggie records in MP4 (H.264) format at up to 1920 by 1080 pixels at 30 progressive frames per second (1080p30), which is best for playback on 1080p monitors and HDTVs. Other options include a 1280-by-720-pixel mode at 60fps (720p60) for smoother motion.

In my tests, the Bloggie produced great-looking video and 5-megapixel stills. The Flip SlideHD ($279.99, ) offers slightly better video-image quality, but with its big 3-inch touch screen, it’s considerably more expensive, and doesn’t capture full 1080p HD video or stills. Overall, when it comes to video quality, the Kodak Zi8 is still the one to beat.

Sharing photos and video captured with the Bloggie is dead simple. Like many of its competitors, the camera includes an integrated connector that slides out and plugs right into your computer’s USB port. When plugged in, the Bloggie’s removable lithium battery charges. In a perfect world, every consumer-electronics device would be built like this, so you’d never need a USB cable, or a separate battery charger.

The Bloggie ships with software for managing photos and videos, but you probably won’t even need it. Once the device is connected to your PC, its memory card appears as an external drive, allowing you to simply drag and drop media into folders on your computer. Flip pocket camcorders, like the Pure Digital FlipUltra HD ($199, ), come preloaded with software that pops up when you connect the camera to a PC—automating the process of uploading videos to Facebook and YouTube. It's helpful for beginners, but it’s probably not necessary if you’re comfortable importing the media to your computer and uploading it to video-sharing sites yourself.

There’s no way to connect the Bloggie to your television for high-definition playback via HDMI. Our Editors’ Choice, the Kodak Zi8 and the Flip SlideHD include a mini-HDMI port for a digital connection to your HDTV. The Bloggie also lacks a microphone input; in my tests, audio sounded just fine, but other devices, including the Kodak Zi8 let you add an external microphone to improve audio capture.

If you’re looking for a sharp-looking, compact pocket video camera that’s dead simple to use, and offers great image quality, the Sony Bloggie HMS-PM5 delivers at a palatable under-$200 price. The Kodak Zi8 adds an HDMI port, microphone input, and macro focus, but you don’t get the pivoting lens. If you want a device designed for not only recording, but also watching video, the latest Flip, the $280 SlideHD, comes with 16GB of onboard memory and a big sliding, tilting touch screen, but it’ll cost you $100 more than the Bloggie.