Sony Webbie MHS-CM1 HD Camcorder
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If ALL you want to do is outdoor video, this camera is a good value, but for everything else, it is an unmitigated disaster! This piece of garbage is utterly unsuitable for indoor video or photography. My video taken at a wedding came out as silhouettes and blurs. Photos taken in a brightly lit room are disappointing. The photo info shows that even in that brightly lit room, the camera would choose a shutter speed of 1/10 of a second most of the time. This means that anyone who is not making an effort to be still is a blur.
If have a Sony DCR TRV-103 from 1999 and it has served me well. That camera could easily handle the tasks that the 2009 Webbie HD completely botched. It’s great that Sony has been able to reduce the price of a camcorder by 80% or so, but the quality of the new product is so poor that you really have to wonder about Sony’s future.
The ergonomics of the Webbie HD are pathetic — you may think that this product was designed by saboteurs who wanted to destroy Sony from the inside. If that is the case, they’ve been wildly successful. I’m going to be hard-pressed to ever by another Sony product again. This piece of junk has stained their brand. The button for the camera shutter is the least badly placed one, but it requires too much pressure which forces unwanted camera movement. The button for the video camera is positioned ludicrously. Did they even consider a human hand when they designed this thing?! Maybe this thing is comfortable for a three-toed sloth, but it’s a Cheney-esque torture device for people.
I bought this thing as soon as I possibly could (1/8/09) and will be marching back to the store tomorrow (1/11) to demand a full refund — there is going to be hell to pay if they insist on trying to extract a 15% restocking fee from me. Stay away from this product!
Rating: 1 / 5
received product and when you open the window to view what you are filming, it was too dark
Its broken!!
Rating: 1 / 5
This camera was just too small for me to handle properly especially the zoom. Also was very difficult to transfer movies to computer.
Rating: 1 / 5
I found the product is not easy to operate, No built in memory, Needs only Sony specific memory
Over all i am not happy with this product
Rating: 1 / 5
I am disappointed in this product. I bought it for my daughter who has really taken to using the MS Movie Maker program and has been recording videos on her Canon digital camera (5 MP PHOTO camera that also does low quality videos). I expected that this camcorder would be a big jump in usabilty and quality for her. What a disappointment.
The video is very jerky; It really needs image stabilization. The indoor and low-light performance is WORSE than the Canon digital photo camera when operating in video mode if you can believe that. The Sony software is confusing and junky. She just wants to plug in the camera and select a new or existing folder in “My pictures” and have the videos show up there. Instead the Sony software pops up and it does various stuff to download the video from the camera and convert it or something. It’s clunky – again we want: plug-in, select folder, download, play. That is not what you get with this Sony software.
Now the worst part. The MPEG-4 video format is not compatible with MS Movie Maker so now my daughter is unable to do what was so very easy to do with the Canon camera and MM. I have tried various free utilities to convert MPEG-4 to AVI so MM could use it but so far have been unsuccessful. The programs are slow, the interfaces are clunkly and worst part I have yet to find one that actually works. I am sure there must be but I just have not found it yet. You also can’t play these videos in Windows Media Player. Quicktime does play them.
At this point I am considering buying some commercial software that can edit MP4 videos. I worry that it will be too complex for my daughter to use. Good editing software can be $100 or more. Oh, and by the way, this camcorder does not come with a memory card so be prepared to spend another $30 to $50 on that depending on size.
Overall, a big let down. I really wish I had sent it back but it’s too late now. Some folks say that it’s a great bargain at $200 and maybe it is. But it’s no bargain if it gathers dust on the shelf and is not used because it’s too hard and the quality is too low and there is no way to edit the clips into a useful movie without buying commercial software for $$$.
Rating: 2 / 5