With everything going on at this year's CES we didn't get a chance to do more than
take a few pictures of Sony's unfortunately named
Webbie HD (aka the MHS-CM1), a tiny little camcorder that shoots in high-def yet costs just $200. Michael at
Diffusion had the opportunity to review one and, while he liked everything on the camera's spec sheet, in practice found it to be a "low priced, low quality disposable HD camera." It shoots 720p and not-quite-1080p video (maxing out at 1440 x 1080) as well as 5 megapixel stills through a 5x optical zoom lens. Overall image quality was found to be poor, thanks in large part to exposure settings that could never settle on the right values themselves yet couldn't be manually tweaked. Given the price really there's not much reason to complain, as it seems perfectly serviceable for those who worry about cost more than image quality, but if you were hoping for a prosumer cam at a plaything price, keep searching.
posted Jan 23rd 2009 9:22AM
When this guy is talking about the negatives, is he comparing it to $500+ HD camcorders or to more comparable units like the Vado or Mino?
-JF
I can answer - because lots of people commented about it (also on Engadget and on my site). When you buy a camera with a Sony logo on it, it shouldn't constantly flux in and out of focus, click between iris settings, etc. That would be like saying that it's ok for a cheap mp3 player to have a slight buzzing sound in one ear. What would be the point?
Sony should be able to make a stable web-quality video camera for $200. Most of what's wrong with this camera could be fixed with different firmware. So I didn't compare it to a $500 camera or whatever. I just held it to the standard of what I expect out of Sony CE. -Michael
That photo is freaking me out!!!
Is the camera taking a photo or is the camcorder videoing the photog?!?
Auuuuuuuuuuuuuugh!!!