Roberts Raw!

› posts tagged ‘bloggie’

Sony Announces Two New Bloggies, Encourages You To Get Your Splash On

Sony’s Bloggie line of camcorders may have had a rough start back as the Webbie HD series, a duo of compact cameras aimed squarely at the social generation… and the now-defunct but then-popular Flip pocket camcorders. Since then, the line has evolved into the Bloggie series, moving away from Sony’s… less than popular memory stick cards to integrated memory, and adding increasingly elegant design with touchscreens and metal bodies. And now we have not only your annual refresh, but the addition of a ruggedized waterproof sports Bloggie, too.

Up first is the Bloggie Live HD (also known by it’s technical name of MHS-TS55/S, for those of you who are more fluent in cyborg than I am). Starting with the hardware, you’re looking at a metal body, in which is housed a fixed 37mm equiv lens, a backlit Exmor sensor that does 1080p video or 12.3 megapixels for still, a 3″ touchscreen, 8GB of internal memory, a flip-out USB dongle, built-in interfacing software for Mac and PC, and a wi-fi card.

Using that wi-fi, you can do more things, like upload direct to social sites (YouTube, Facebook, etc). And going even further, it can now do live streaming (something a lot of the press could probably use out at CES this week). Honestly, this is probably the best spiritual successor to the Flip I’ve seen announced, and anyone who’s been looking to fill that hole in their life should gaze long and hard at this beauty. It might just be the way to go. Especially for the relatively painless retail of @249.97.

 

But, if you need something a bit more… durable, don’t worry, the Bloggie line now has you covered there, too, via the Bloggie Sport HD (MHS-TS22/L in the cyborgese). If you’re willing to trade down to a 2.7″ screen, a 5 megapixel still function, and the wi-fi, you can add on waterproofing down to 16 feet, and drop protection up to 5 feet. Which ought to make this a gem for adventuring types. For some reason I’m still thinking kayaks. I think I have a fixation, here.

And, because there’s apparently a law that waterproof things need to look sporty, the Bloggie Sport HD does indeed sport it up, though not without a certain sleekness. And it’ll do so for you in your choice of blue, red, or black (all adorned with black rubber trim). You also get to shave some scratch off the price, dipping down to $179.97 for this one.

It’s worth noting before we leave that both models also feature Sony’s sensor-shift IS, LED lights, and auto-focus with face detection. Which pretty much rounds out what you’d expect from a pocket cam.

 

 



Sony Announces Drop-Dead Gorgeous Update to Bloggie Camcorder

So, while we kinda liked the quirky little original Bloggies, we’ll forgive you if they weren’t quite your thing (especially if a camcorder in the color “Eggplant” weirded you out a bit). But, we have to say, there’s a lot to like about the refresh to the Bloggies, and it starts with “ooooh” and ends with “aaaah.”

I mean, really, take a look at this metal-clad bit of gorgeous over here. This is everything the last gen wasn’t, and borrows heavily from their T-series CyberShots. Which is not a bad thing.

Under the hood, you’re looking at an f2.8 “wide angle” lens with the pocket-cam standard 4x digital zoom. Hard specs aren’t listed yet, we don’t know exactly how wide the lens is, and we also know it’ll have internal memory this time (a much better idea all around than its predecessor’s Memory Stick hangups) in 4 and 8GB sizes, but no suggestion as to how many minutes of footage those will hold.

We do know it’ll do 1080 HD in MP4 format, and can take 12.8 megapixel still with its CMOS sensor. We also know that it’ll have a touch interface, and easy sharing to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and Picasa. The software is preinstalled on the device, and the USB plug is also built-in this time, making this a full-on Flip competitor now.

And, of course, it’s Sony, who is one of the biggest names in consumer video and who have been cranking out absolutely stellar HD-ready devices for the past couple years, so we have little doubt it will return anything but wonderful video quality.

The 4GB will be about $180, the 8GB about $200. We’ve heard black and silver, but could swear we saw pink kicking around too. Still, even without pink, they seem safer color than the last model’s silver, orange, and purple.



CES Update: Sony announces bloggie ™, Derek rejoices

Just call it the bloggie (TM) -it's a lot friendlier to your mouth than "MHS-PM5"

Just call it the bloggie (TM) -it’s a lot friendlier to your mouth than “MHS-PM5,” which sounds a little like something just waiting to close down schools and introduce an aporkalyptic prophecy logo on national news networks. Derek, by the way, was near trilling with excitement over a product called “bloggie” from a big-name manufacturer.

The bloggie (TM) records 1920×1080 HD video to a 1/2.5″ CMOS sensor -it’s small being 3/4 inch thick, 4 3/8 long, and 2 1/4 wide, and yet they’ve crammed Face Detection, SteadyShot optical image stabilization, a fold out USB 2.0 adapter, and a 2.4″ LCD monitor which slips between portrait and landscape playback with the angle of the device.

I hear a number of people deride the tiny-cam market, but I love ‘em. Sure hours of vacuous inanity gets recorded, uploaded, and repeated in the vast, practically infinite space of the internet but hey, that seems to describe most television programming too.

The bloggie (TM) has only 26MB onboard memory, but takes Sony’s proprietary MemoryStick technology and the 8GB size should render about 80 minutes of full HD recording. It appears in teal, eggplant, and white.




Switch To Mobile Site