For a company that’s long been entrenched in the camcorder space, Sony’s pocket video cameras have always been off target in terms of features and usability. The Bloggie MHS-PM5 minicamcorder, however, at least shows improvement and a better understanding of what consumers are after with these devices. The Bloggie matches up well against competing models when it comes to shooting movies, offering good features and decent results. Sharing your clips, on the other hand, is not as user-friendly as cams from Flip Video, Kodak, and others.

Also, the product name, however silly it sounds, is an accurate descriptor. Its clips are suitable for Web sharing and nondiscerning TV viewing. Just because it’s capable of recording at 1080p doesn’t mean it can replace larger full HD camcorders or that the video is “Blu-ray quality.”

Show your videos to the world. Just use the pre-installed Picture Motion Browser (PMB) Portable software to pre-select videos and images in the camera and easily upload them to a compatible PC and popular internet sharing sites. No additional software needed.

Sony’s Bloggie joins the growing ranks of pocket camcorders offering a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Paired with a 5-megapixel 1/2.5-inch CMOS sensor, the Bloggie delivers excellent video quality for a pocket camcorder. You also have the choice to bump the resolution down to 1280 x 720 at either 30 or 60 frames per second, or down to 640 x 480 resolution.

Color reproduction looked accurate on the Bloggie and while there is some digital noise (or graininess) in dim light, the Bloggie held up about as well as its main rivals: Kodak’s Zi8 and Pure Digital’s Flip UltraHD. Unfortunately, for all this great HD video, Sony didn’t include an HDMI output on the Bloggie. You’re left with lower quality A/V outputs for viewing your vids on an HDTV.

The Sony HDR-SR12 ($1,399 MSRP) is the company’s third generation AVCHD camcorder recording to hard disk drive (HDD). The SR12 features a new CMOS sensor and DSP touted by Sony to be the best yet, along with a huge 120GB capacity. It is joined by the HDR-SR11 ($1,199 MSRP), an identical camcorder with a smaller 60GB HDD. In previous iterations, all AVCHD camcorders have failed to live up to performance expectations, but 2008 seems to be the year it’s turning around. The Canon HF10 gave outstanding performance and sharpness. The Panasonic HDC-SD9, while not as good as the Canon, exceeded the performance of its predecessors. So how does the Sony HDR-SR12 hold up to the competition? In a word … strongly. This is undoubtedly the sensor/processor package to own if you’re a Sony fan. The low light performance is excellent – far superior in noise reduction to the Sony HDR-HC9, its HDV cousin, and comparable to the Canon HF10 in1080/60i. However, the overall sharpness does not match that of the Canon HF10 in bright light, and Canon’s inclusion of multiple frame rates (60i/24P/30P) makes it a tempting offering. The manual control packages are evenly matched. Sony wins on capacity, while Canon wins on portability. It’s a tough choice. Let’s explore.

The Sony HDR-SR12 is a solid, beefy charcoal-gray and black-bodied camcorder. Pick it up and you know it’s sturdy without the lighter-than-air feel of inexpensive Mini DV and DVD camcorders  or even expensive flash-only models such as the Canon Vixia HF10 . It weighs 20.4 ounces without the battery, 23.4 with and measures 3.37 x 3 x 5.5 (WHD, in inches). By comparison the HF10 with 16GB of on-board capacity weighs around 15 ounces but it holds only two hours of Full HD video versus nearly 15 for the Sony. Even with the extra weight it fits nicely in the palm of your hand once you adjust the Velcro wrist strap.

Chiseled from a solid block of ingenuity is the HDR-SR12’s right side. Sony went for practicality and sheer sexiness on the grip side. Toward the lens end, the Mic, Headphone, and HDMI ports are shielded by a sliding port cover door. No other camcorder is equipped with such a flashy and convenient enclosure system—this design is straight out of Q’s laboratory from any 007 movie. On the opposite end you’ll find the A/V and USB terminals, enclosed by a covert plastic plate that slides underneath the body of the camcorder. Sony has kicked some major behind so far with the HDR-SR12’s architecture.

Connecting the camcorder to a 50-inch plasma via HDMI I was quite pleased with the outdoor video taken in Manhattan. Colors really popped including brightly-painted tourist buses, speeding yellow taxis and the like. There was hardly any trace of noise in the blue skies or as I zoomed in on the architectural details of the nearby buildings. The SteadyShot optical image stabilization worked really well with barely a hint of “shakes” from my handheld pans. Some brightly blooming red azaleas looked extremely lifelike. Face Detection also worked well and the 5.1-channel surround sound was fun, especially with traffic coming up behind you. Besides the HDMI connection I also burned a DVD using Sony’s truly effortless One-Touch DVD Burn system and played the material back through a Panasonic BD30 Blu-ray player. There was a touch more noise than the direct HDMI connection (to be expected) but the overall results were quite good.

The Canon ZR700 tops off the ZR series this year, which has undergone serious cosmetic changes, including a new joystick control. How does the ZR700 hope to distinguish itself? The differences from next step-down, the ZR600, are small but crucial, including the analog inputs. Combine this with a 30x optical zoom and solid low light performance and you’ve got an under $400 camcorder that looks pretty good.

The camcorder’s left side is dominated by a 2.7-inch wide-screen LCD–a natural match for the ZR700′s full-sensor-width, wide-screen recording capabilities. Even better, Canon moved all video and playback controls to the bevel of the LCD panel and simplified them, too. A five-way joystick provides navigation and quick access to manual focus and exposure settings. Four buttons put frequently used features, including digital effects, wide-screen/4:3 mode, and the video light, at your fingertips. We like the built-in lens cover, which slides open and shut. However, the lack of an accessory shoe is disappointing, especially considering that there’s room for one on top of the unit. Canon doesn’t include a microphone input either, while the super-low-end ZR500, which costs $100 less, has one.

With its 1/6-inch CCD as well as both 340,000-pixel 4:3 and 450,000-pixel 16:9 effective resolutions, the ZR700 is suitable for home and vacation videography. Canon’s 25X optical zoom lens improves on the ZR300′s already impressive 22X lens, but even better is the choice of zoom speeds: 1X, 2X, 3X, and variable. The last is typical of zoom controls: the amount of pressure on the rocker dictates the speed of the zoom. But the fixed speeds give you a consistent zoom to prevent amateur-style jerkiness–too bad you have to delve into the ZR700′s menu system every time you want to change the setting.
Technical Details

• Features true widescreen recording and powerful 24x optical zoom
• Widescreen 2.7-inch LCD
• Canon’s Digic DV image processor for exceptional color and clarity
• Smooth Zoom Control function prevents jerky zooms
• Joystick lets you easily operate playback, focus, exposure, and menu options