Advertisement

Sony's Webbie HD reviewed: cheap but not a bargain


With everything going on at this year's CES we didn't get a chance to do more than take a few pictures of Sony's unfortunately named Webbie HD (aka the MHS-CM1), a tiny little camcorder that shoots in high-def yet costs just $200. Michael at Diffusion had the opportunity to review one and, while he liked everything on the camera's spec sheet, in practice found it to be a "low priced, low quality disposable HD camera." It shoots 720p and not-quite-1080p video (maxing out at 1440 x 1080) as well as 5 megapixel stills through a 5x optical zoom lens. Overall image quality was found to be poor, thanks in large part to exposure settings that could never settle on the right values themselves yet couldn't be manually tweaked. Given the price really there's not much reason to complain, as it seems perfectly serviceable for those who worry about cost more than image quality, but if you were hoping for a prosumer cam at a plaything price, keep searching.