Sony is undoubtedly one of the largest and also one of our favourite manufacturers of electronic goods. Ever since they started producing camcorders, they have been enjoying the top spot amongst their counterparts. Sony’s predominant success came with the Cyber shot series camera, as they became one of the most popular brands of camcorders in the market. Though things have not changed a lot since then and though people are still going for the Cyber shot cameras, Sony had to introduce a camcorder that is so efficient and comfortable to handle. And then, the Bloggie HD camcorders came into the market bashing the then existing HD camcorders. They were one of the slimmest camcorders that can shoot at full HD resolution. Though they were a big success for Sony, the one drawback that Sony itself observed, regarding the Bloggie, was that there was no touch screen interface. This, Sony thought, would arise some small but crucial problems and observed the fact the users could have a problem interfacing the device. Hence, it came up with a revamped Bloggie HD camera, and this new version sports a touch screen interface. Sounds exciting right? Though there is this fantabulous Bloggie Touch 3D camera that lets you shoot and watch videos is 3D, let us contain ourselves with the Bloggie touch for now. We shall review the 3D thing in the coming few days, but for now, let us move on to the rest of the details as we unveil the new MHS-TS20K Bloggie Touch HD camera from Sony.

Design:

Innovative:

The Bloggie comes out with a unique design for a camera, since it looks more like a mobile phone or a PDA device, than a camera. Known for being so innovative when it comes to design, Sony has experimented with the design of its new Bloggie camera. Though it is not that new to those of you who are already acquainted with the primitive Bloggie camcorder model, it is a bit of a surprise for those of you who are encountering the camera for the first time. It is not as difficult though, when it comes to using it, since everyone has a mobile phone that has a camera and hence we know you are habituated to using cameras of that ilk.

Speaking of the design part of the device, you must be a proud owner of the Sony Bloggie Touch HD MHS-TS20K Camcorder since it has got that elegance and attractiveness that none others have. It is a pocket camera and is very portable. Coming to the physical characteristics, the device measures about 2 inches wide, 0.6 inches deep, and 4.3 inches high. Now that looks like a measurement of a PDA, but it is a camera, for better reasons or for worse. The device also weighs about 4.4 ounces, which is quite less for any given camcorder these days, hence making the Sony Bloggie Touch HD camera is pretty light device on the whole. It is sleek, it is portable, it is light in weight, and it comes in pretty vibrant colours like grey, black, blue and pink. So, what else can one expect from any camera? If you are still reading, it means you have already decided to go for this.

Display:

Well, it is a full touch bar out there, as discussed earlier, and therefore one would expect a pretty big display. And fortunately enough, the Sony MHSTS20K Bloggie Touch HD is blessed with quite a large screen, as large as 3 inches and moreover it is a TFT active matrix LCD touch screen. Is that not enough for it to be a top notch camera? To be honest, we always liked the cameras that come with a touch responsive display since such a display mechanism helps the users by saving their time, and more importantly, it is easier t0o access the device. Touchscreen technology has taken up the electronic market and it has been, and will continue to be, quite a wonderful boon, until something better crops up in the future.

Coming back to the Bloggie Touch HD Digital Camera and Camcorder, you have scores of things that you can do when it comes to accessing the device. You can select options, scroll through photos, play, pause and stop videos, arrange things in order, change the settings, zoom or pan pictures and videos, so on and so forth. There are endless options for you to do and things will definitely seem a lot easier since it is a touch screen display. To give you a bit more details regarding the display of the Bloggie Touch HD, the total pixels displayed on the screen would be as many as 288,000. This big number only gives you a better display of things on the screen and hence there will not be under pixelation while playing your photos and videos. You will also have a better picture of what you are going to capture.

Features:

Sony always provides with abounding features on its cameras and there definitely are quite a few features of the Bloggie Touch HD that need to be discussed here. We shall go through each and every important aspect of the camera and provide you the all important details of the things that make it one special camera out there in the market.

1080p High Definition:

The world has dramatically changed over the last few years. So did shooting methods and video quality. From Standard Definition, which has been there for quite a long time, for more than a few decades, the shooting quality is now on a totally new level. High definition is the new format of videos and with the introduction of HD televisions and Blu ray players, many users have now shifted towards the high definition region, where Standard Definition is treated equivalent to a bad video quality. This is the reason why you see all those camcorders come with and boast of high definition shooting capability. But when it comes to the Bloggie Touch HD, Sony is not just blowing its trumpet, as you can see the quality of the images its camcorders can deliver. The Bloggie Touch HD camera faithfully follows the 1080p HD rule and you can obtain high quality videos for yourself using your Bloggie. This would surely give you wonderful pictures with awesome quality at almost all conditions. You may be wondering that the size of the video will be too large if it is as qualitative as 1080p, but as you will later see, Sony has come with a Bloggie Software package that helps you regarding that aspect. Hence, no more worries as you shoot videos at an absolute high definition and hence feel professional of yourself. Therefore clearly, there are no half measures out there when it comes to video quality. A full HD is what you get from The Bloggie Touch HD camera.

Image Stabilisation:

When you have got such a nice camera that can give you superb pictures which look like they are from a Hollywood director of great eminence, you would expect the images to be stable and perfect. Not shaky pictures, not even in dreams. This is the reason most of the cameras today come with a new but superb feature by the name Image stabilisation. As the name suggests, this special ability of the camera to stabilise the images makes the pictures even sharper and there will be less or no shaky effect of the camera on the obtained images. This gives you crystal clear pictures that have no disturbances. As there will be no stand or tripod provided along with the camera and even if you buy one separately there would not be any considerable affect, this special feature of Image stabilisation will do your shooting more than a world of good.

Auto Macro:

For those of you who are fanatics of Macro shooting, the Auto Macro feature should sound awesome. When the camera detects very close objects or a situation suitable for Macro shooting, the focusing range of the lens automatically changes and you do not need to change the setting by yourself. It happens automatically and instantaneously so that it may be useful for you in case you need an instantaneous photograph of something very close. Though the auto macro feature is seen lately in many of the high definition cameras and camcorders, this special feature is pretty new to a camera of the likes of the Sony MHS-TS20K HD Camcorder. Though long range shooting will be the default mode of shooting on the camera and though the focusing range is normal, everything changes when there is an object pretty close to the lens of the camera. For those of you who are new to Macro Shooting, all we can say is that is an awesome way to express your talents in photography and most professional photographers prefer this mode of shooting in order to create a sense of awe.

Low Light Shooting:

Most of the cameras and camcorders do not function at their fullest potential when it comes to low light shooting. You either need tom shoot under daylight, or you need to provide yourself with plenty of artificial lighting, if you want excellent picture quality and contrast, and brightness. But when you have to shoot in twilight or when it is dark, or when there is inadequacy of external light, most of today’s cameras need a flash light to help them capture some decent pictures. Well, you do not need any sort of lighting when it comes to the Bloggie Touch HD MHS-TS20K camera. The lens of the camera automatically detects the low light condition and the camera itself adjusts the exposure settings and hence in a way, increases the exposure of the subjects in the picture. This makes the picture brighter than it actually is, and hence it would be easy to get a video or photo of a decent picture quality. There will be minimal or no noise added to your pictures while shooting in low light, depending upon the luminosity. This is another added advantage when it comes to the Bloggie Touch HD. A no noise and no nonsense camera that gives you excellent output almost always.

Face Recognition:

Face recognition technology is also pretty new to cameras and camcorders and it has also, in a way, changed the aspect of photography. What happens when this technology is used in a lens is that whenever the lens detects faces of people, the picture settings like exposure, brightness, focal length of the lens are changed automatically without manual interruption. This makes shooting instant and also pretty effective. The camera tries to recognise as many faces as it can and hence distributes the exposure to the whole picture, instead of centering on one single subject. This feature, face recognition, will also be helpful to you later on, after the shooting is over. If you are wondering how, we tell you that you can tag people’s names on their faces and save them in memory so that they can be shared later on, on social networking sites. Hence, this feature is clearly multi purposeful.

Photo and Video Tagging:

And here we arrive to the most fun filled activity regarding the Bloggie Touch HD Camera. Most of us today save and share the pictures and videos we have captured with our dear ones and friends. And photo and video tagging can be quite strenuous when there are too many people involved in a photo or a video. You need to search for or type people’s names on your device and this can sometimes be a strenuous job. Hence, the Bloggie offers you a simpler mechanism wherein you can tag more than one person at a time. All you need to do is save the contacts in groups and then tag the entire group in the video whenever you wish to. This makes things easy because you can then have separate groups of people like friends, family, office, etc., and then select the required group at the time of tagging. Things are always easy when it comes to the Bloggie and Sony has yet again proved that it can make life easier for us users. And we really like this point of tagging friends in a faster way because it really helps during social networking with your pals, which we are going to discuss in the next topic.

Sharing:

Sharing is the new way of life and by sharing we are not being philanthropic, though it is a great deed in fact. And we all know how important a habit social networking has become of late. Lately, more and more people are into social networking. From being just a hobby, social networking has become a part and parcel of many people’s lives today. And sharing has also become an integral part. There are people who feel that the more they share with their pals, the more they care for them. If you are one of those, then the Bloggie Touch HD camera is such a boon since it supports sharing big time. There are numerous social networking websites supported by the Bloggie Touch HD and you have plenty of options when it comes to sharing with family and friends. You can upload videos instantly onto YouTube, without ever worrying of the format of your videos since it will automatically be transformed into the required format. And then there is Facebook, where you can tag photos and videos and share with people whenever you wish to. Websites like Flickr, Picasa Web albums and Personal Space are also featured on the Bloggie Touch HD camera and this means sharing is never this easier.

Bloggie Software Package:

Yes, finally there is someone who understands the needs of a common user. We all wish to have a nice user friendly and a no nonsense software that can easily load, save, and allow us to share our videos. And Sony has made this dream come true achievement possible by introducing the Bloggie software. This software can be installed on your PC or Mac. It is easy to install and easy to use too. Then you can sync your Bloggie to your PC or Mac using the plug in USB arm, about which we will discuss a bit later. After the syncing part is over, you can ,load the videos, make whatever changes you want to them, and save them onto your drives for future use. You can mend your videos, add some music and some graphics to them wherever you want, edit, cut, copy and paste whole or part of the videos, and save them in the end. This is an absolutely useful software package since it helps you design your own videos and also allows you to make them or break them at your will. You can also show your editing skills and show your talents off to your pals. The software is provided along with the Bloggie Touch HD camera in a disk, and it is free of cost. You can visit Sony’s website for more details regarding the software package and its features.

Plug in USB arm:

The Universal Serial Bus alias USB has now become a household name of late, from being a corporate utility. It has now replaced the compact disks and even DVDs in many areas of entertainment and business. It is a simple but important tool that allows you to easily transfer files, sync multiple devices, charge your electronic gadgets and store large number of files easily without the fear of the data being erased off. Regarding the Bloggie Touch HD camera, it has got a plug in USB arm, the one which has lately become pretty famous when it comes to electronic gadgets. You can easily pull it out of the device, and then connect it to your computer, and charge the device or sync it with the computer in order for more utilities. This type of USB arm can be so useful since it has got portability. You do not need another separate charger in order to charge the device and to sync it with your computer. In comes as a built in feature and hence there is good portability and at the same time security too.

Performance:

Now that we are done with the features list, we need to focus our attention on the performance of the Bloggie Touch HD camera. Since the features are pretty excellent, latest and user friendly, you can be rest assured that this is at the top of the list. But can this small beauty of a camera from Sony withstand the reputation when it comes to performance? Let us go through every inch of detail regarding the performance of the Bloggie Touch HD camera. Well, there are predominantly there different types of performance for every camera or a camcorder, which are respectively Shooting performance, Video performance, and Audio performance. Let us see if all the three performance aspects conform to what we need.

Shooting Performance:

Just like many other high definition cameras and camcorders in the market today, the Bloggie Touch HD camera has got all options and features automated. This means that there is no need for the users to change the settings for every shooting mode. Things will be set automatically, according to the outside conditions. And shooting performance of the device is very good, if not excellent, under almost all conditions. Low light video shooting has also given us satisfactory results and if are looking for full high definition quality of 1080p, then here you have already got one camera that can do it. With the help of image stabilisation, the camera also maintains good stabilised shooting conditions and certain noises and effects due to shakes are all nullified automatically, giving you are smooth running picture, just like in theatres. Focusing, face detection, white balancing, and exposure balancing, and so on, are automated and give you perfect results while you are busy shooting videos. We are completely satisfied with the shooting performance of the Bloggie Touch HD camera.

Video Performance:

We have not noticed any kind of crisp edges on the subjects or digital noise when it comes to the video quality of the Bloggie Touch HD camera. Under normal daylight or under plenty of artificial lighting, the camera is so awesome that it gives you some ecstatic results regarding the video quality. Sony says full HD and full HD is what you also actually see coming out of the device. And when you opt to shoot in 720p HD resolution, you get even better quality and smoother images, thanks to the high frame rate of 60fps. Whichever way you try, there will not be any degradation in the image quality and that is what we have liked regarding this camera. There will not be any problems regarding the pixilation of the subjects, contrast or colour of the images in artificial lighting. We have tried and tested the device under certain conditions and came out with almost all positive results. There were no major errors or defects reported during the testing processes. Also the videos look great even on your computer screens after the shooting is done. This shows that one can count on the video quality of the Bloggie Touch HD.

Audio Performance:

Unless there is a lot of wind around, one should normally expect pretty good audio performance form the Bloggie Touch HD. One does not normally need a separate mike since the existing one will suffice more often than not. If the mike is not covered by your hand or any other object you must be getting some decent audio out of the device. Voices are given top priority and there is a little bit of noise cancellation, but that may not do you a great favour when there is too much of wind or external noise. But on the whole, the audio on the Bloggie Touch HD camera is pretty good and in fact, better than those on the rival cameras as well as some of Sony’s own cameras in the past.

Image Quality:

The Bloggie touch MHS-TS20K HD Camcorder can also take some pretty good pictures for you. Images can be captured using the image mode in the device and pictures with decent quality can be captured always. You get a quality of 12.1 MP when it comes to still images and this is by far, a very good quality rating for any camera today. Since most digital cameras today come with an average quality of 8 to 10 megapixels, one can hence believe that 12.1 MP is quite a decent quality for a still image. And capturing still images will also be not as difficult as it seems since the device has a form factor that is similar to that of a modern mobile phone. Hence, most of you would find it easier to handle the Bloggie Touch HD and at the end of the day, your pictures come out in flying colours too, which is exactly what you are looking for.

Battery:

The Bloggie Touch has come with a built in and non replaceable Lithium ion battery, and it gives you long battery life so that you can shoot for more hours without draining the battery too much.

Warranty:

The Bloggie Touch HD camera is warranted by Sony for a period of just about 90 days from the original date of purchase. While this seriously is less for a warranty period, Sony says there will not be any complaints because each and every part of the camera has been manufactured with great care. However, we still think there should have been a warranty period of one year at least.

Verdict:

It is always difficult to tell the readers in one word, about any gadget. Every gadget has its own positive and negatives and just like us humans, gadgets also are not always perfect. But we measure the degree of closeness to perfection, a gadget is. And to be honest with you, the Bloggie Touch is right up there comfortably beating all its rival counterparts from similar manufacturers. As you can see, almost everything regarding the device, like the design, the display, the features, performance, and extra facilities, all are pretty good indeed. And for the reasonable price tag that is sports, once can easily say that this is a camera that is worth more than its price. It is a perfect companion if your aim is shooting at home. But if you are a bit more professional and are looking for something more awesome than this one, we always are ready with one. You can go through some of the best cameras and camcorders in the market on this website itself.

Check other Latest Camcorder Reviews, other Sony Camcorder Reviews in this website.

Sony Bloggie MHS-TS20K Mini HD Camcorder – Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer Sony
Model Name Bloggie Touch HD
Model Number MHS-TS20K
Camcorder type Mini, HD Camcorder
Dimensions (W x D x H) 4.3 x 2 x 0.6 inches
Weight 125 grams
Colour Black, Silver, Pink, Blue
Monitor 3-inch TFT LCD
Video Resolution 1920 x 1080
Still Picture Resolution 12 MP
Image Sensor CMOS
Lens (focusing) Optical auto focus
Optical Zoom 1x
Digital Zoom 4x
Focal Length Photo (16:9 Mode): 37mm, (4:3 Mode): 32mm Video (16:9 Mode): 37mm,
(4:3 Mode): no modes
CCD Type Exmor CMOS sensor
Recording Media 8GB Internal Memory
Exposure control Auto
Video compression format MP4
Face Detection Yes
Shutter type Electronic
Frame rate 30-60 fps
Effective Pixels Photo (16:9 Mode): 8294K, (4:3 Mode): 12780K Video (16:9 Mode): 2073K,
(4:3 Mode): N.A.
Media Card Slot available Yes (SD/SDHC/Memory Stick Duo/Memory Stick Pro Duo)
Playback HD (High Definition) Playback
Playback Zoom
Index Playback
Supplied Software bloggie Software (Built-in, Windows/Mac)
Image stabilization Available
Audio input Microphone
AV out HDMI component-out and normal
Speaker Yes (mono)
Digital voice recorder Yes
MP3 player No
TV playback Yes
Self timer Yes
Quick Start Yes
PC interface USB arm
Power adaptor USB arm
Accessories USB Cable, PMB software, Rechargeable battery pack,
wrist strap, A/V connecting cable, component A/V cable
Battery Li-ion rechargeable battery
Battery Life 160min
Warranty 90 days

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