Bloggie Good Fun

About a week ago I received a new camera in the mail, a Sony Bloggie Touch camera (MHS-TS10). A strange name, but obviously, a camera geared for those that want to post things on the Internet. Now you know I love a bargain, but it's not a bargain if the product doesn't deliver to expectations. This little camera is a very pleasant surpise.

Several features attracted me to it:
1. Compact size 4 3/8" x 2" x 1/2" and weighs 4.5 oz.
2. 12.8 MP fixed lens camera with the equivalent of a 32mm focal length in 35mm.
3. 1080p and 720p HD video, with up to 2 hrs of video recording!
4. 3" touchscreen for controls and viewing
5. flip-out USB arm for battery charging and image transfer
6. 4GB built-in memory
7. focus from 4" to infinity
8. Price -- it was less than $60, shipped.
9 Tripod socket!

It's the size of a small cellphone (and since I don't use a smart phone, this is pretty handy), and easily fits into a shirt or pants pocket. The power-on and still-image shutter button is on the top of the camera, and the movie button is a HAL-9000 reminiscent button on the right side of the back of the body. The lens is on the left side. The diminutive size of the camera is balanced by the few controls one needs to use to acquire an image. The ON button, the still-image button, and the video button are all that are needed. The camera features auto ISO of 80-1600, and shutter speeds of 1/30 to 1/4000 sec, and a 2 or 10 sec shutter delay.

The touchscreen works like any other device these days -- swipe and tap to get around. The Bloggie comes with built-in software that installs when you plug the flip-out USB cable to your Windows computer. (Mac OS software can be downloaded from the web). It was easy to install, and it installed the latest update from Sony.

How did the camera perform? Quite well, as I have taken it everywhere in the past week. It works best in brighter conditions, but even in lower light it does surprisingly well with the auto-ISO of the camera. Photos taken under ideal conditions are sharp, colorful, and in-focus. Uploading images is fairly straightforward with the pop-out USB connector, as is sharing them with others on Flickr and Facebook via the Bloggie software. The video is quite good, and the camera comes with a mini HDMI cable to connect to your TV. Overall, I recommend this camera if you are looking for something fairly simple, yet takes quality still and video images. There is a lot of technology built into the Bloggie, and the Sony name means that you'll get something that is fairly well made.