Description

Capture HD MP4 video and 5MP images and upload them directly to the Web with the Sony bloggie camera.

Customer Reviews

 A good little camera for non demanding situations. - Aug 28, 2010

This is a fine camera for those who need to have a little something handy for ordinary regular light shots and have little room other than a pocket or purse. The stills are adequate and videos are not bad. Don't expect professional quality with lots of bells and whistles. My only caution is in selecting a case. Sony sells a bloggie case online. Don't get that one! It's too small. There's another one slightly larger that fits. Charging almost certainly requires a usb port such as on a computer. Unless I'm mistaken, there's no way to plug it into an outlet, at least without getting extra cables, I think.

 Very good.... as expected. - Aug 28, 2010

I ordered this to take videos on our trip and it's really good. It's easy to use and the image quality is very good as well. I don't know how the image quality of this camera would compare to other expensive ones. But for less than 200 dollars, I think this is really a good buy. Plus, it's light and handy too. I take one star away because of the way it's designed. It's a little awkward sometimes the way you hold this video camera. I often have to use the other hand to turn on or off the recording button. For other video cameras I used before, I can use the same hand I hold the camera to turn on and off the recording button.

 Bought this to propose to my future wife - Aug 25, 2010

I purchased this little camera for one reason. I needed something to fit in my pocket so I could pull it out and propose to my girlfriend when the time was right. The right time was in Disney World when we stopped next to Cinderella's Castle around midday. I said, "let's do a video recap of the day for the vacation video." and then preceeded to hold the camera in one hand while pulling out the ring with the other while balancing on one knee.

The great thing about this camera is that it takes a memory stick as big as you're willing to spend on it. My 32 Gig SD card holds roughly 14 hours worth of video. This is a big plus when you're running around Disney World for 5 days. Similar cameras that have internal memory are locked at about 1 to 2 hours of footage and you need to empty the camera.

The camera itself creates very high quality images. The different resolutions and frame rates allow you to pick and choose based on the action in front of you AND the lighting.

720 @ 30 fps - this is great for low light situations. I recorded some interior stuff at the other settings and the light information got a lot lower. I think it must have something to do with less strain on the capturing of twice the information allows the camera to concentrate on bumping the exposure.

720 @ 60 fps - This is my favorite for bright and outdoor situations. The video moves like butter. However, if you have an unsteady hand, plan on bouncing. This setting has no image stablizing.

1080p @ 30 - It's honestly the setting I use least. The picture is very nice, but the files are pretty big and I think I prefer the slightly smaller image better.

The camera bag i chose was a small digital camera bag by Swiss Army. It hold the camera snug and has just enough space for an extra battery. The camera case was small enough that I was able to keep it in the large pocket on my cargo shorts. This was a big plus because we didnt' have to go through security to "Check All Bags."
YES, buy an EXTRA BATTERY. You can shoot 5-10 minute clips for 4 or 5 hours, but it's always good to play it safe.

Oh yeah. She said yes.

 Bloggie - Jul 15, 2010

I am so glad I purchased the Bloggie! It takes fantastic pictures, wonderful videos and what I like most about it is, once you download the video, you can actually pick a scene from the video and turn it into a picture!! I love how easy and fun it is to share the video and pictures on Facebook or my Blog. My father said that it's really simple and quick to download the videos that I send to his email address as well. I recommend this product to anyone. I would also like to say that the battery life is exemplary as well. I recommend the hard shell protector case to go with this product.

 nice camcorder for its price - Jul 05, 2010

If you're not a big fan of technology this camcorder/camera its a good option for you. Nice image, nice colors. only disadvantage: poor quality in low ligth situations. great for outdoors.

 Pretty good for it's price - May 13, 2010

It's very good cam for day light use, because it doesn't have a flash then you're pretty much bound to making movies and pics only at day time, which is good enough for family trips.
It's very small and very easy t carry around.
Good quality pics as well.

 Great camera for the money - May 05, 2010

While it does HD, don't expect the 1080P quality to be like watching a Blu-Ray movie. But for the money, all around good camera. Loved the fact that it has 5X optical zoom. Like most low-end camcorders, it struggles in low light - especially in the HD modes (I found using 760 30P to be the best compromise for low light indoors, and 760 60P for outdoor action sequences). Saw a review on CNET that advised not to use the built in image stabilization, so I've avoided that and been pleased overll. For under $200, a good buy!

 Great little camcorder - Apr 24, 2010

I purchased this camera and only tested it briefly before going on vacation to Disney World.
It performed beautifully in many sutuations, including the fireworks show. It is slow focusing in low light, but the quality of the videos, once focused, is very good. I also tested the 5MP stills and the quality was very good.
My only complaint is the screen. As with all cameras w/o an eyepiece, or even your cell phones, it is very difficult to see in sunlight. Even with the brightness up full, you must try to stand in the shade to get some idea of what is on the screen. One suggestion is to throw a towel, jacket or whatever over your head and camera, that should help. p.s. I did not try that.
The software supplied is something else. I still haven't gotten it to work correctly and video downloads will not run within the PMB program supplied. I have to use a quicktime video program to view on my PC.
However, that said, the videos play beautifully on my HD TV.
Buy a minimum of 16GB SD class 4 card and another battery and you are all set. USB charging is horrible, agonizingly slow.
Buy a charger and you will get a full charge in 90 minutes and not hours and hours that the USB hookup takes.
Enjoy! It's a fun camera.

 Great Experience with this product!! - Apr 23, 2010

-Overall this is a great video camera.
-The voice recording is clear and the still image snap shot is great (Hate that there is no flash for night still image).
-Like the optical zoom very much.
-User friendly buttons and settings.
-Compact (can be kept inside pocket in standing position; not quite comfy in sitting position)
-Average battery hour. Not quite suitable for a long vacation unless you have back-up batteries.

 Almost excellent product. - Apr 21, 2010

Don't expect too much with this $199 camcorder and can't compare with $1000 camcorder, it works very well in high light and struggles in low light. The video quality is not too bad with 1080, better than the 720p and regular camcorder. I'm very happy with this camcorder, it is so convenience to carry around. The spec lists it uses SD card, so I brought the Transcend 16 GB Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card, and it does NOT fit into the slot at all. I guess it only uses Memory Stick Pro then. Overall, it worths $199.

 The good, the bad, and the ugly truth - Apr 17, 2010

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

 portability is excellent - Apr 01, 2010

The Sony MHS-CM5 is the best I have found for the type of use. It has 5X optical zoom when most of the others in its price range have digital zoom only. This feature is the main reason for my purchase and it works very well. Video is very nice using the HDMI cable. Stills are clear, color balanced and pleasant to look at. I would like more slow-motion options but what does one expect for under $200.

 -- Alert do not buy this Camera, video is really bad. - Mar 13, 2010

I bought this Camera last week and get it pretty fast as usual with items bought at Amazon.

started to use it, and went to check the videos on my laptop, TV, editing software. I noticed that the video had some strange strobe, so I paid more attention to it, and checked the video frame by frame.

What a surprise, I realize that the camera does some stretching/distortion of the image from frame to frame, so straight buildings looks like they're bending during the shooting just like plastic.

Hell weird, then I did more tests, and checked that when you zoom in, to your full 5x optical, the issue gets bigger, it looks ridiculous.

I contacted the Sony support service, and they really don't know if this is an isolated incident or a problem with the camera model itself.

my advice, don't buy a product that doesn't deliver what it says it should.

My best guess is: The camera can't get the full 1080p to work when you are moving the camera around, so it tries to compensate.

 Great everyday camera. - Feb 06, 2010

For those of you that think $200 will get you results of a $1500 video camera, you can forget that! For the price, this is an excellent camera. It's small, easy to use, starts up quickly, and takes great video. It does struggle in low light, but most cameras do. The picture looks great on my Sony 1080P TV.
A great feature the camera has is the ability to zoom while recording. Many point and shoot cameras do not allow.
As for it being 1080P. Of course it's not Blue Ray quality 1080P. But the resolution is there. It does have a sharper picture than the 720P Sony DSC-W290.
This camera is worth every penny. And this is coming from someone who installs home theaters for a living.
As for the review about the 1080P complaint. You need to learn that it's more marketing than anything. There is a difference between low cost 1080 sensors and expensive 1080 sensors. Yes it shoots great videos. No it's not as good as a high end $125,000 piece of equipment. And yes you will get better video if you spend $1500.
As for taking still images, it's your average camera phone quality. But that's what the DSLR is for.

 Video ok - Stills stink - Jan 28, 2010

The Bloggie has its video quirks that you can find in the other reviews, but quality has been fine if you work within the limitations/quirks (remembering that this is a pocket camera). It works fine on both my Mac Mini and Powerbook via usb SD card reader and usually from the built-in USB on the Bloggie. You can either drag the files off the SD card or grab the video through iMovie (v8.0.5)

The major bone I have to pick with the camera is the still picture imaging. Everything looks fine on the screen, but as soon as it takes a still photo the image turns overly yellow. It must be a internal software issue as this doesn't happen with video. It doesn't seem to matter much what kind of light the still is shot in or how much light there is (although it is more pronounced in low light settings it seems). Clarity seems fine for a 5mp camera, but the color shift makes the ability for stills useless.

This may be a deal breaker unless Sony fixes this software/firmware issue.

I should note that my camera is the MHS-PM5 not the CM5

 Great camera for non-techies. - Jan 27, 2010

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.

 Not that great... - Jan 24, 2010

Let me start by saying that this camera doesn't cost $200. It costs more like $250 when you have to buy an 8gb Sony Pro Duo Memory Card and unless you already have a mini-HDMI to HDMI cord, you'll have to shell out extra for that as well (if you want to connect it to your HDTV). As far as being Mac compatible ...not really. The box says Mac on it yet the CD that comes with the camera has NO MAC SOFTWARE ON IT!!! WTF Sony??? I had to use Quicktime to get my files off the camera in MPEG-4 and then drop those into iMovie to be edited. Very lame. But, I was using iMovie '08 and so that may be the reason. Perhaps iMovie '09 works properly, I don't know.

Regarding the camera...

I found it okay to hold until I wanted to use my thumb to press a button. There is just no way to hold this camera with one hand and operate the zoom or the record button without a lot of shaking going on. This is just a poor design, especially for the zoom. If you want a stable shot while zooming, you'll need to put two hands on the camera. The same can be said when you want to snap a picture. The menu is very basic and limited. There are very few options you can control. Apparently, the camera automates just about everything, which is disappointing. Picture quality is the only saving grace of this camera. It is exceptionally good for the price. However, if you want to video your kids' sporting events, it better be a bright day or a bright gym. The low-light performance of this camera is terrible. And, the only way to shoot at 60 fps (frames per second) is by dropping down to 720P - which is still good quality, but it's not full HD. Also, the low-light performance gets even worse at 60 fps (as with all camcorders) so for dimly lit gyms, this camera just flat out doesn't work.

Charging this camera sucks. It charges via USB only and DOES NOT INCLUDE A USB TO WALL OUTLET ADAPTER!!! Therefore, you have to connect it to your computer and leave it on. In this day and age of eco-friendliness, that's really lame. Also, the USB connection on the camera is a male plug, not female. Therefore, you need a special cord for that as well (they give you one that is about 6" long- which is awkward). For such a small camera, this is dumb design. I think they are trying to appeal to being "cord free" like the Flip but there are better ways to accomplish this.

One last thing... every time I charge or connect the USB, the next time I go to use the camera it says "error formatting memory card". I take the battery out and put it back in, problem solved. Not sure what that means but obviously there is some kind of glitch. I'm curious if others are having the same issue.

All in all, I was disappointed with this camera and do not recommend buying one. Sony's crappy return policy means I'm stuck trying to sell mine on craigslist.

 Doesn't work with Mac - Jan 23, 2010

I was excited to receive this device, but it doesn't work AT ALL with my Mac - the device doesn't show up in the Finder (on any of 4 Macs tried), so video's can't be used. Totally worthless; I hope this is just a problem with this particular unit. Returning.

 Here is a review - Jan 20, 2010

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

 BAD BAD PRODUCT !!!!! DO NOT BUY !!!! DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER IT !!!!! - Jan 20, 2010

This is probably the worst Sony product.
I got it about a week ago from Sony Style. The sales person told me it was 1080p just as any other Sony camera.

First of all:
It is not FULL HD as any other camera. This camera's 1080p is 'bumpy'. If you want a realtime shooting you will have to use 720p. This means this is NOT a full hp camera.


Now, what bothered me the most: COLORS
This camera sucks when it comes to color fidelity.
I was recording my daughter and realized she was wearing a PURPLE shirt. Not the BLUE colored shirt I was seeing from the cameras' screen.

Took back to the store and the manager told me he could not waive the 15% restocking fee because there was nothing wrong with the camera. Still according to this gentleman the color were different because this cameras has less RESOLUTION than the others !?!?!?

Well, this should be a 1080p camera so there are no resolution difference. But anyway: RESOLUTION can change colors? WHERE????

Mine was returned only a very few days after I bought it.

DO NOT BUY !!!
DO NOT BUY !!!

Buy something elese.

 Full 1080HD... - Jan 19, 2010

I purchased this new Sony Bloggie not even a week, and I see this new gadget as the second generation of Sony Webbie which Sony had unveiled for almost a year ago. There are few things that Sony has upgraded for this little thing. This gadget has full 1080P video capture mode (1920x1080), even so if you don't need to use its full feature video resolution you can just easily downgrade to 720P or even less resolution.

I am basically pretty happy with this new stuff. The result from the video recorder is pretty nice when you shoot during the day time with enough light, but a bit fuzzy during night or low light condition. The use of the functions are pretty easy, 5X optical zoom is enough for me.

The cons about this camera is there isn't any charger, you basically have to charge the battery using the camera and you connect them to your computer usb port which mean you leave your computer on.
If you thinking you get any 1080P flash camcorder, I think this stuff is pretty cool compare to any other brands we have in the market.