Sony MHS-CM5 bloggie HD Video Camera (Violet) - Camcorder Review

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B. A Reichle (Burbank, CA) –

  

Amazon is obviously filled with fake reviews from either fanboys or competing company employes. I bought this camera, and even reviewed it, compared it to other cameras like the Kodak zi8 (search google for “letsfindjesus bloggie” to find videos of my review). The Sony is the best under $200 camcorder on the market. Its auto focus is quick, the colors are rich and accurate, and the mono mic actually sounds good. It has a built in usb plug (which is also used to charge) and pretty good face detection. The still camera (unlike the pocket cams) actually takes decent 5 megapixel photos. It has a playback speaker which is loud enough. The 5X optical zoom is smooth, and the digital zoom is well… a digital zoom. Bottom line, for the price the picture quality and build is mighty good.

There is some negatives, I listed them below, none are deal breaking.. more of a wish list. The biggest feature missing for me is Steady Shot (image stabilization) on the 1080p and 720/60 frame modes. The Kodak zi8 has this, but it looks like crap on 1080p so I guess I would rather not have this feature if the hardware is too slow to process the steady shot. Which is why im guessing Sony didnt include this feature on the higher quality modes.

Pros:

-Very acceptable video quality
-Good sounding mic
-GREAT accurate colors
-5X optical zoom
-for once a decent still camera
-quick zoom
-SD memory card capable and Memory Stick Pro Duo
-Record and upload.. its in a format that just.. Works.
-Mac and PC friendly

Cons:

-Battery lasts a little over an hour (buy an extra!)
-Steady Shot is only on 720P (30 Frames/sec) and VGA
-lens cap instead of hardware lens open/close
-mic is mono (but its not bad)
-no manual focus
-low light (like all low cost camcorders) isnt the best, and the focus is slow/struggles in low light

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Arnold G. Tijerina III (Moreno Valley, CA) –

  

I bought the CM5 after trying out a couple of other HD camcorders. I just wanted a basic, easy-to-use camcorder that films in 1080p and was easy to upload to YouTube, Facebook, etc. This camera met all those requirements. It is very easy to use, takes great quality video and uploading to YouTube was a snap with the included software. I’ve never been a BIG fan of Sony’s imaging products because they use the Memory sticks but this camcorder will accept either the Memory sticks OR SD cards. It was easy to setup. The camera has software built-in (like the Flip does) but it also comes with a more feature filled version that you can install on your computer. It transfers and uploads easily. The only drawback is that it won’t stand up on its own whereas, based on the location of the flip-out USB connection, you would “think” that it should. It has froze a couple of times but not while recording, only when trying to turn it off. I had to pop the battery out and back in and it worked fine again. Certainly not a deal-breaker for me. The mic is good also despite being a mono mic. The camera has an image stabilization feature but it is NOT available at 1080p. That being said, I did not encounter too much shaking (that wasn’t my fault) when filming in 1080p. Nice things about this camera vs the Flip (as that is obviously what it’s trying to compete with): it films in 1080p/30fps (no Flip does that), it has removable memory (SD or Memory sticks)so you can bring along extra memory, and it has a removable battery (so you can bring along an extra battery without having to recharge it). The view screen is a little hard to see unless it’s angled right at you. Other than that, I really like the camera. If you are a non-techie that wants an easy to use camera that films in 1080p, you should get this camera.

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T. Fogerty “I like tech stuff” (Columbus, OH USA) –

  

I bought this camera as we prepared to go on spring break. We didn’t have a whole lot of time to figure things out before we left so we had to learn on the fly.

The good:

Lightweight, easy to use
Good picture quality overall
Color does shift with different light levels though

The bad:

An issue I found was with the image stabilizer. Honestly the images look better with it off. The picture is too jumpy and struggles to frame things up and focus with it on. Seems counter-intuitive but I can’t explain it any other way.

The Ugly:

The Sony web site indicates the unit comes with a charger – wrong
In typical Sony style the customer service agent tried to imply to me that the charger was only included if I bought it directly from Sony. The problem is that if you intend to travel and do not have a computer to hook the USB cable up to you are out of luck for charging the battery. After multiple calls to Sony pointing out their website is wrong I finally gave up and called the local Sony Style Store. The manager looked up the website info and agreed that it was wrong. He had me come by the store and gave me the charger needed to charge the battery without a computer. A huge thanks goes out to him, I hope Sony corp customer service can learn something from this.

Amazon buyers please be aware your package will not include a battery charger. It will only have the USB cable to charge the camera.

Overall:

Don’t expect quality on par with a $1000+ camera. But as far as this camera goes it’s pretty good and a good value

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