Sony MHS-PM1 Webbie HD™ High Definition Camcorder

Not too long ago I bought the Panasonic SDR-SW20R Flash Media Camcorder (I wrote a review for this) for a "cheap" price of $344. Just last week I browsed through a display of camcorders at Frys's and came across this Sony Webbie MHS-PM1 camcorder for only $159, smaller, with swiveled lens and HD resolution. I had a crush with it and bought one right away. Well, it's not as good as I expected.

I change my format this time, I just tell you the points that I think interesting, good or bad, rather than reviewing the entire unit point by point:

- Perfect Compact Size: perfect size to me(.9 inch thick and 2 inch wide). Thin enough to put into the pocket, light enough to carry anywhere, but not too thin and too light to be fragile. The body is sleek, comes with a selection of colors. This camcorder is by no means the smallest. At Fry's I saw a camcorder from Creative Lab which is just a bit bigger than the first iPod players.

- Swiveling lens: I think this is the selling point of the camcorder since among the competitors, at this time, none has swiveling lens. I tried to record myself, something that I've never done before with a conventional camcorder, and found the 1.8 in LCD screen is a bit small at my arm length. However, it's good enough to see my face and some scenery in the background. A good feature to point out: ultra-compact camcorders usually don't have lens cover, so the lens is stainted easily. Not so with Sony Webbie. The lens can be rotated to the downward position, therefore is not exposed to the outside and thus there is no way you can accidentally touch your fingers on its surface.

- Unlimited recording time (with a catch): one of the factors that I didn't consider the famous camcorder line Flip Mino HD, a competitor, is because it has fix internal memory that limits the recording time (for example, if you buy the 4G model the recording time is about 1 hour). This Sony Webbie recording time is limited only by its memory card. For example, with 16G card I can record 6hrs at HD quality. However, there is a catch here: for 16G card you can record up to 6 hours but not 6 hours CONTINUOUSLY. Rather, every 25 minutes you have to press the record button again because the limit duration of a video clip is 25 minutes. This is a big flaw that takes away much credit from the unlimited recording feature.

- Removable/Rechargeable battery with decent recording time: battery is very important for a camcorder especially when you travel. This battery has a decent life of about nearly 1.5 hr.
2 good points and 2 bad points about the battery:
Good point 1: this battery pack is removable. In competitor camcorders, notably the famous Flip Mino HD, the battery is built inside the camcorder, you cannot take it out. This is a no no to me. I had enough problem with this type of batteries: when the battery dies, you have to throw away the whole device. Even if the battery doesn't die its life SURELY is shorten after a year or less, no matter what the manufacture claims(I have so many gadgets powered by rechargeable battery, I'm sure of this).
Good point 2: with rechargeable battery you definitely have to shell out extra bucks for a 2nd battery battery and it is usually expensive. Fortunately not in this case, the battery that the camcorder uses(Sony NP-BK1) is pretty cheap, about $12 on ebay , including shipping.
Bad point 1: battery must be taken out of the camcorder and charged in a craddle. This means you cannot record when the battery runs out of juice, in other words, you don't have the option of using electrical cord to record. For people with pre-Alzheimer symptom like me, if they forget to charge the battery before an important event, say a kid's birthday, then that's it, you can't use the camcorder. However, this could be a blessing because the manufacture is forced to supply a craddle, so when you buy the extra battery you have to buy only the battery (in my previous purchase of Panasonic SDR-SW20R, because the battery could be charged inside the camcorder the manufacturer did not provide the craddle, I had to buy both the craddle and the extra battery).
Bad point 2: battery cannot be charged using USB like most of its competitors. I think this is poor design. Since the USB is there, I don't see why the Sony didn't make it chargeable via USB like similar devices that use USB port(Flip Mino HD, iPod).

- Good Recording mode selection: the camcorder comes with 5 scene selection modes to adapt to different light setting or enviroment settings.

- Just average image quality: at high quality recording(1440x1080/30p, 1280x720/30p) the quality is acceptable, same as DV quality or better but definitely way behind the HD quality on regular camcorders. I think the image is better than the bulkier Panasonic that I have, but far below the competitors Flip Mino HD. In broad daylight the picture recorded in HD mode is good. However when the light turns low the image seems at times out of focus, the pictures has lots of noises. I use this camcorder at night a lot(weddings, parties), and found that except for very bright light like one in a big hotel reception hall for a wedding, low lights affect the picture quality greatly. Overall I rate the image quality just average.

- Image easily shaking: can't really blame the camcorder, due to its compact size and light weight, the image can't be as stable as the ones from bigger camcorders. There is no stabilizer either, but it's pretty the norm for a low cost camcorders like these.

- No zoom: actually there is 4x digital zoom, but that doesn't count. I even consider digital zoom as a way to cheat na ve customers. So I consider as if this camcorder has no zoom. However given the compact size of the camcorder we should be lenient on this point. The size of the camcorder and the way it is constructed (candy-bar shape) prohibit optical zoom option. If you definitely want a zoom you have to sacrifice the size and go for a more bulkier sister MHS-CM1(5x optical zoom included), which, atlas, may defeat your original purpose of putting a camcorder into your pocket.

- No flash: there is no flash. Poor focus and no flash will make the still pictures in low light nearly impossible to capture. I know that this camcorder is primarily for video recording, but since a 5M picture can be taken, a flash would be greatly appreciated.

- Poor focus: if the light is low then the carcorder seems to have focusing problem. The problem really shows in still pictures. This does not surprises me: there is no flash, no low-light assisting beam.

- Memory is proprietary: the camcorder uses Memory Stick Pro Duo, which is more expensive compared with competitors such as SD. 8G memory stick pro duo costs you about $25 inclusing shipping (ebay) and 16G cost $100. If you buy SD card it costs half that much.
- Memory not included: to add insult to injury the camera does not come with any memory stick. There is an internal memory but it has a meager 12M. I can't believe how cheap Sony is here, it should include at least 500M internal memory.

- Poor audio: the microphone is mono. the quality is sub-par

- USB connector for file loading is not integrated: most competitors of this camcorder have integrated USB connector, which means the USB connector is inside the camcorder, so that when you need it, it's right there. Not so with Sonny Webbie. To load the the video files to your computer you have to use an external USB cord, connect one end to the camcorder and the other end to the computer USB port. However, this problem is alleviated a bit thanks to the fact that the memory card is removeable, you have the option of off-loading files using the card rather than via the USB port.

Wish list: I have a wish list
- Carying case for the camcorder
- Integrated USB connector (like in Flip Mino)
- Flash for still pictures

Conclusion: this camcorder has many limitations and flaws due to its ultra compact size. For all its shorcomings I still like it and keep it. However I cannot recommend it to everyone. If you need a second camcorder to carry anywhere, so that you could capture something that may come up expectedly, this camcorder is for you. But if you go for quality and features, you definitely should consider other camcorders, many of which are just slightly bigger but have many more features, including important ones like optical zoom, stabilizer.