>> Hi. I'm David Carnoy, executive editor
for CNET.com and I'm here with the Sony
MHS-CM5 pocket camcorder. This is one of
Sony's new entries in its bloggie line of
pocket camcorders and it's supposed to go
up against the likes of the flip video
models and some of the Kodak models. This
is obviously bigger than those flip models
and it's really much more shaped like a
traditional camcorder. It's got that
pistol grip-style. It is fairly compact
though. It can fit in come pockets such as
a cargo pants pocket, but it's really more
bag friendly than pocket friendly. Does
have a large 2.5-inch flip out LCD and a 5X
optical zoom which is kind of a key feature
because flip video camcorders only have
digital zoom. This is real 5X optical
zoom. This does have some electronic image
stabilization. It is a 1080p model. You
can't use the image stabilization with the
1080p HD mode but you can use it with the
720p mode, however it doesn't work all that
well so we don't encourage actually using
that steady shot electronic image
stabilization. And moving to this model,
Sony has incorporated that USB connector
that is found on those flip video models so
that's a nice addition. This also doesn't
come with any memory, but there are slots
for both SD cards and memory stick duo
cards and there's an HDMI output so you can
connect this to your HDTV, but it doesn't
come with an HDMI mini cable so you have to
buy that separately. As we said one of the
strengths of this camcorder is it does have
real zoom. Also the image quality is
really pretty good for a pocket camcorder,
does compare favorably to the flip video
models. We felt the color was a little bit
over-saturated and the auto focus wasn't
super fast, but the image was sharp so we
think you'll be pretty pleased with the
image quality. There's no mic jack for an
external mic but you do have a lot of
resolutions to choose from when you're
shooting and this does have a 5 megapixel
sensor so you can shoot still images.
Another positive note, this does have a
removable lithium ion battery so you can
purchase additional batteries if you want
to extend your shooting time. In the end
we really felt pretty good about this Sony
camcorder. It is one of the first that we
can recommend at this price point. It
costs around $200. One feature worth
mentioning is that this camcorder does do
close-ups very well. Some of these other
flip video camcorders just don't allow you
to focus on objects. It does have a few
shortcomings, for instance we really didn't
like the software that came with the
camcorder, but this does work with both Mac
and Windows PCs and as we said, the image
quality is good and it is a fairly
feature-rich pocket camcorder. I'm David
Carnoy and it's the Sony bloggie MHS-CM5.
