Last Updated on 07/29/2011 by Chris Gampat
At this year’s Pepcom, many companies came to display their latest products as well as their soon to be released ones. Sony had a modest booth with some keyboard skins, a laptop, some digital frames, and the Bloggie Touch. The latter is the latest in a line of pocket sized camcorders, and I got some hands-on time with it at the booth.
The first aspect I noticed was its size. The Bloggie Touch is about half an ounce lighter than the current iPod Classic, and both have roughly the same dimensions within an eighth of an inch or so. Though, given the Bloggie’s 3′ capacitive touch screen, it looks like more of a Zune. No matter which way you hold it, the screen will orient itself appropriately. It can easily be handled with one hand, but a second one always helps.
Sony cut back on buttons with this model. The record button in the image above is one of three. In the image below, the power button and still image button round out the layout.
The Bloggie has a solid feel. It’s easy to hold, and with the lack of buttons, navigating it is not a daunting task. Literally, all you need to do is turn it on and hit record. And if you’ve left your fancy camera at home, fear not, for you can hit the still image button, and take robust 12.8 MP photographs. The autofocus works seamlessly. How Sony managed to cram 1080p video and 12.8 MP image capabilities into such a small package, I do not know, but it is fairly impressive.
Adding to these specs, Sony has packed it with several sharing features. In the camera itself, you can select which images and videos you want to share to, say, Flickr, Facebook and Youtube, and when you plug it into your computer via the pop out USB arm the camera will automatically sync and upload to the sites of your choice.
The camera is a solid choice for those who want quick and easy video with an option for photos. I imagine this will be popular among soccer moms, sorority sisters, and teenage boys paying homage to their idols Knoxville, Margera, Steve-O, and Dunn.
Sharing seems to be the latest trend. I guess the reclusive artist was yesterday’s fad.