I recently got a Sony digitial camcorder, the Bloggie. So I figured I’d do a little review on it. Mind you; a little review, I’m not going to go over all of the features, just the ones I’ve been exposed to.

This is the actual Bloggie I have.  Well, a picture of it.  As you can see it’s not the smallest of the digital video recorders out on the market, such as the flip, or Sony’s other digital recorder offerings, but it’s close and it fits in my pocket. 

This digital recorder has some really nice features.

• 5x optical zoom
• A memory card slot
• Removable battery
• Large LCD screen that flips out and rotates
• Fairly good audio recording via the built in mic
• Fold out USB connector (common in most digital recorders)
• Mini HDMI connector out
• AVI out connector
• Pistol-grip-like body style
• Cap cover for the lens (this is pretty unique, and in my opinion critical)
• Max recording resolution of HD 1080p
• Tri-pod connector

As you can see here, the LCD display flips out and you can rotate it. It also can rotate pointing to the front so you can easily record yourself. You can also fold it down after you have rotated it so that the LCD is facing outward from the camera, I haven’t figured out what the advantage of that is, but it’s cool.  It has the feel of the older camcorders, but it doesn’t have an eye piece to look through when recording and I find that hard to get used to.

It doesn’t have a light, or an attachment for light, so recording in low light enviornments isn’t as easy. But that’s ok, you can turn the lights on inside, you know lamps, and it does really well recording in standard sunlight.

Ok, connectivity is pretty good on this.  As you can see you can open a door in the back, flip down the USB connector and plug it directly into your computer.  It also comes with a USB extender which makes connectivity a bit easier in some situations. When you flip down the USB connector it exposes the mini HDMI and AV connections. 

The AV connections require a special cord which comes with the Bloggie which is a composite output, there is also a connector available for component out which you would have to order, and likewise if you want to use the mini HDMI connector, you will need to order one.

To charge the Bloggie, you need to plug it into a USB port. The battery does come out, so you can charge up a couple to have when you are out and about, I don’t know what the additional batteries cost, or if there is a stand alone battery charger out yet, I have gone and looked on the Sony Style site and couldn’t find one.

To get the video to my computer and edit it; I have found that just pulling out the sd-Flash card and inserting it in my machine works best. The files that the Bloggie produces are .mp4, which you can edit in most of the popular video editing software on the market.

There is also software that comes with the Bloggie that you can install on your computer that allows you to edit and publish to services like YouTube, but I haven’t installed it myself.  Additionally the editing/publishing software is actually on the Bloggie in it’s internal memory and you can install it from the Bloggie onto your desktop or laptop via the USB connector.  I’ve only used it in a windows enviornment, but Sony says the Bloggie plays well with Mac too, good news!

If you want to see the quality of the bloggie video, just check out some of the videos I’ve taken; like the four high bike, the model T car… it’s pretty sweet!