Sony Bloggie Touch MHS-TS10 Camcorder Review

Still Features

The Sony Bloggie Touch takes good still photos. That's quite a compliment considering the fact that many ultracompact camcorders don't even take still photos at all (like the Flip series of camcorders). The Touch can capture native 12-megapixel still images at a 4128 x 3096 resolution, and it also has 8-megapixel and 2-megapixel photo options (both of which capture at a 16:9 aspect ratio).

The camcorder also has the ability to snap photos during video recording, which is something that is not available on many ultracompact camcorders (the Kodak Playsport and the Sony MHS-CM5 can't do this). Finally, there's a basic self-timer on the Bloggie Touch as well.

The Bloggie Touch disappointed in our still color test, mainly because the camcorder didn't produce colors that were nearly as accurate as we saw in our video testing. However, the camcorder still did a better job than the competition here, so we were pleased on that front.

Compared to the Kodak Playsport and the Sony Bloggie MHS-CM5, the Bloggie Touch produced still images that were much cleaner and had more accurate colors.

Noise levels on the still images captured by the Bloggie Touch were too high for our standards. The camcorder managed a noise level of around 1.04% in this test, which is twice as much as the Kodak Playsport averaged. This result isn't all that bad, however, because we often see worse numbers in this test (as noted by the MHS-CM5's dismal noise percentage of 1.77%).

With its 12-megapixel still image capability, we weren't that surprised to see the Bloggie Touch master our still sharpness test. the camcorder captured some of the sharpest still images we've seen from an ultracompact model: 2327 lw/ph horizontal with 44.5% oversharpening and 2306 lw/ph vertical with 33.5% oversharpening. These oversharpening values are definitely high, but we're fine with overlooking that fact when the camcorder can deliver such sharp still images.

Other Features

HDMI Output 50Hz or 60Hz

This is essentially a PAL output option, which is a common feature on ultracompact camcorders. Switching the HDMI output to 50Hz allows you to send a video signal to a PAL format television (the NTSC default is 60 Hz). Not the most impressive feature, but it can be useful if you travel overseas frequently.