Sony MHS-CM5

Miscellaneous Controls (0.25)

Without any of the more commonplace image controls (like exposure and white balance), it should come as no surprise that the Bloggie has no real specialty controls either. The MHS-CM5 really isn’t marketed toward a demographic that would be interested in manually tweaking color depth or sharpness. There is, however, one interesting feature to note:

Flicker Reduction

According to the Bloggie’s user manual, this feature: ‘curbs the flicker generated by fluorescent lights by using the electro-shutter.’ We did not notice any difference.

Auto Controls (4.50)

Focus – There is no manual focus option on the Bloggie. Instead, you’ll have to let the autofocus do its job. On most of the competition, this means just pointing at your subject and enjoying the ride, since most ultracompacts have a fixed focal length. The Bloggie, which should have an advantage with its moving lens elements, is actually terrible at focusing. The problem is described above in the auto mode section.

Exposure – The Bloggie MHS-CM5 does not have an option for manual exposure control. As is true with most ultracompacts, you’re stuck with the automatic exposure adjustment. Fortunately, the auto exposure works fine, even if it’s sometimes painfully slow.

Audio Controls (0.75)

There aren’t really any audio features on the Sony Bloggie MHS-CM5. There is a tiny, strangely placed mono microphone on the top edge of the LCD panel. And… that’s it. There’s no way to adjust audio volume, there’s no microphone input, and there aren’t even any gimmicky features like Wind Cut.

Editing (8.50)

Both entries in the Bloggie series ship with the built-in Picture Motion Browser (PMB) Portable and regular Picture Motion Browser (PMB). Neither is as simple to use as Flip Video or as fully featured as what probably came with your Operating System. The good news is that this year’s PMB Portable is compatible with PCs and, for the first time, Macs.

Whatever program you end up using, one thing is certain: the MPEG4 files that are recorded by the Bloggie are easier to edit than the large and sometimes frustrating AVCHD files recorded by more expensive HD camcorders. For an overview of the software that ships with this and other camcorders, see our article: Video Editing Software For Your Camcorder.