Sony’s Hipster Camcorders

Um, is that an eggplant in your pocket?

By Sean Captain Posted 01.11.2009 at 12:11 pm 1 Comment

MHS-PM1 The Webbie HD PM1 comes in three colors and sports a flip-out lens.

Purple is the new black, Sony is telling us, by introducing the “eggplant” color for its new Webbie HD line of pocket-sized camcorders. You can also get them in orange or silver, but I have to admit, eggplant is pretty cool-looking (and according to many of my women friends, indeed the hot new color).

Also fashionable are the low prices: $170 for the MHS-pM1 and $200 for the model MHS-CM1. Both models capture 5-megapixels still photos and shoot video in the compact H.264 format at an almost-1080p resolution of 1440 by 1080 pixels (and 30 frames per second). Both also come preloaded with PC software that enables one-click uploads of video or photos to sharing sites Shutterfly, Picasa, YouTube, Dailymotion and Photobucket (The software runs when you plug automatically when you plug the USB connector into your computer.)

MHS-CM1_Main_Purple: The $200 Webbie CM1 captures HD video and five-megapixel stills with its 5X optical zoom lens.

Spending $30 more on the pM1 model is well worth it, as it gets you a 5X optical zoom lens, vs. the fixed lens in the CM1. Either way, you’ll also have to Pony up for a Sony Memory Stick card. (You can get one four gigabytes for about $20.)