Sony MHS-CM5

Low Light Sensitivity (5.62)

Sony has made one very important improvement to its ultracompact line. The Bloggie MHS-CM5 performed much better on our low light sensitivity test than last year’s Webbie fared. The Bloggie required just 12 lux of light in order to output 50IRE. By contrast, the Webbie CM1 needed an abominable 27 lux. The Bloggie’s performance is about average for a consumer camcorder—not great, but not horrible either. The Webbie’s performance last year was just awful. More on how we test low light sensitivity.

These results were achieved by testing the Bloggie at its maximum resolution of 1920 × 1080. The frame rate at this resolution is 30p, which typically turns in a better sensitivity score than 60i or 60p. (However, 30p also tends to have more motion trailing in low light.) The Bloggie, unlike most ultracompact camcorders, does have alternate frame rates available. However, the 60p setting will not improve low light sensitivity and it’s only available in a1280 x 720 resolution.

Low Light Noise (10.43)

The CM5 definitely produced more noise in low light than it did in our bright light tests. The noise percentage in low light was 1.015%, which is above average for any consumer camcorder. More on how we test low light noise.

Sony MHS-CM5 Low Light Noise Comparisons
Sony MHS-CM5 100% Crop	Sony MHS-CM1 100% Crop Sanyo VPC-CG10 100% Crop Pure Digital Flip UltraHD 100% Crop More...

The only camcorder that consistently performed better in the noise department is the Flip UltraHD. As we said in the bright light noise section, the Flip does well in the noise tests because its low sharpness causes all of the noise to be obscured by blurriness. The Bloggie maintains both a clear image and high resolution.

Low Light Color (7.50)

The low light color results are about average for the Bloggie. The 4.85 color error is a slight improvement over the results boasted by last year’s MHS-CM1. It also fared better in low light than in bright light. The horrible white balance issues in bright light were all but absent when we dimmed the lights. More on how we test low light color.

Low Light Color Accuracy Performance
	Color Error Map
	The map on the left is a diagram of the color error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camera processed each particular color while capturing video. The {{product}} produced a color error of {{color_error}} and a saturation level of {{saturation_level}} in our bright light color testing.

In the color error map above, you can see that the low light performance rendered inaccurate purples and greens, but the oranges and yellows are more accurate than they were in bright light.

You can see in the crops below that the CM5 does appear darker at 60 lux than the competition. The colors, however, are bold and accurate—though not quite as nice to look at as the colors produced by the Sanyo VPC-CG10.