The SONY Bloggie Camcorder
In the first article in this series, we explored the ideal attributes a cheap (under $200) digital camcorder needs to be a good choice for creating and uploading videos to YouTube. The features discussed include portability, video quality, audio quality, and the features that make uploading to YouTube easy.
Besides its cutesy name, the SONY Bloggie does offer some great features for YouTubers especially since this digital camcorder comes in two form factors. Read the rest of this review to find out whether the SONY Bloggie is the cheap, digital, YouTube camcorder for you.
Portability
Rating 
The SONY Bloggie is unique in that SONY offers two form factors for its cheap, digital camcorder. The MHS-PM5 is a bar-style design similar to the Flip UltraHD and Kodak Zi8. Unlike those camcorders, this P Series comes with a 270-degrees swiveling lens so that you can shoot videos while viewing from either behind or in front of the camera. This is a great feature if you ever want to get in on the action and still see if the video is framed correctly. The P Series Bloggie also features an impressive 4x optical zoom.
The MHS-CM5 version of the Bloggie is the model that looks more like a standard camcorder. Featuring a swivel screen rather than a swiveling lens, the C Series is the model for the more serious YouTuber who wants to frame videos more conveniently and accurately. The C Series Bloggie improves a bit on the zooming feature with its 5x optical zoom.
Unlike the Flip UltraHD, however, the Bloggie does not ship with any storage memory; right out of the box the camera is incapable of shooting any video until you shell out more money for Memory Pro Stick Duo or SD/SDHC media. The necessity of buying the storage separately pushes the price of this camcorder out of the sub-$200 range. Both versions of the Bloggie, however, offer 5 megapixel still image captures making this camcorder more versatile than its competitors.
Video Quality
Rating 
Although Cisco’s strong advertising for the Flip UltraHD has made it the number one selling cheap digital camcorder, the Bloggie offers higher quality video and a few more features that make it the better technical choice.
The SONY Bloggie offers 1080p High Definition video captures where most other camcorders in its class offer only 720p, including the UltraHD. However, the compression format used by the Bloggie is still the popular H.264 standard which is the native compression algorithm used by YouTube. Essentially, what you see on your camera is a good approximation of the results you will get when you upload your video to YouTube. The MP4 video file created by the Bloggie is compatible with a variety of media players such as Windows Media Player, iTunes, and QuickTime player.
The quality of a camcorder this size cannot possibly compare with the quality obtained from a larger, full-featured solution. Still, the quality of the video itself is about average for a camera in this class. You’ll get nothing more but nothing less than what you’d expect for the price you pay for this camera.
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