Sony Bloggie Touch MHS-TS10 Review: Much Better at Photos Than Video

The Sony Bloggie Touch sports a stunning design, and it's an intuitive, easy-to-use pocket camcorder. Unfortunately, though it shoots decent photos, it's disappointing as a video camera.

The Bloggie Touch is a lean piece of equipment, with dimensions of about 2.1 by 4.3 by 0.6 inches. Dominating its back are a 3-inch touchscreen and a record button. The left side offers a HDMI port, while the right side has the power button and the trigger button to snap still photos. On the bottom is a foldout USB connector. Since the Bloggie Touch does not have an SD Card slot or any support for removable media‚ you have to make do with its internal 4GB or 8GB of memory. For this review, we tested the 8GB model, which costs $200 (as of July 25, 2011); the 4GB version is $150 (as of July 25, 2011).

Using the Bloggie Touch isn't difficult. To capture a video, you simply press the record button. If you want to take a photo, all you have to do is press the dedicated shutter button. The camera can shoot video in 1080p at 30 frames per second, 720p at 60 fps, and 720p at 30 fps. It takes photos at 12, 8, or 2 megapixels.

You use the Bloggie Touch's touchscreen to change the settings. To adjust the video or photo quality, you press a square button located at the top-right corner of the touchscreen. To access the photos and videos you've taken, you touch the play button at the bottom-right corner.

Video Quality and Image Quality

In PCWorld Labs subjective tests for video quality, the Bloggie Touch received a rating of Fair (on a scale of Poor, Fair, Good, Very Good, and Superior). The camera did not perform well in either bright-light or low-light situations--unusual, since most camcorders we've tested tend to do well in bright light, even if they fall short in darker environments.

According to our tests, the Bloggie Touch is a much better still camera than camcorder. On photo color quality, the camcorder earned a score of Superior. We rated its sharpness as Good and its exposure as Very Good. Its audio-recording quality also received a Good rating.

Buying Advice

If you're looking to buy a pocket camcorder that is sleek, attractive, and easy to use, you can't go wrong with the Bloggie Touch. You'll find other pocket camcorders that produce better video image quality, however.