Sony Bloggie Touch MHS-TS20

Low Light Sensitivity (6.30)

The Bloggie Touch did a decent job in our three low light tests, but we usually find ultracompact camcorders excel in low light because of their large sensors, fast lenses, and use of slow shutter speeds (that cannot be turned off). Even though the numbers may make it seem like these ultracompact models are better in low light than some high-end camcorders out there, they aren't really... but they are surprisingly good.  (More on how we test low light sensitivity.)

Required Illumination *

* the lower the lux required, the better the performance

The Bloggie Touch MHS-TS20 managed essentially the same low light sensitivity as its predecessor, the Sony Bloggie MHS-CM5. As we said in the paragraph above, the Bloggie Touch uses a slow shutter (1/30 of a second) in certain low light situations to boost performance. This feature cannot be turned off—as is the case for most ultracompacts—so we had to leave it on in our testing.

Low Light Colour (7.10)

As is usually the case, the Bloggie Touch showed a significant drop in colour accuracy when we dimmed the lights for our low light testing (compared to its bright light results). Still, the Bloggie Touch did a decent job in this test overall, although the other camcorders we compared it to had marginally better numbers.  (More on how we test low light colour.)

Auto Low Light Colour Performance
Colour Test Chart (above), Colour Error Map (right)
The Sony Bloggie Touch produced a colour error of 5.16 and a saturation level of 70.68% in our low light colour testing. (The map on the right is a diagram of the colour error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camcorder processed each particular colour.)

One thing you should notice from the comparison images below is how much brighter the Bloggie Touch's image is than the Kodak Playsport and even the Sony Bloggie MHS-CM5. Yes, the Picsio GC-WP10 also produced a bright image in this test, but its saturation level is roughly 120%. We'd like the Bloggie Touch to have captured deeper colours in low light, and we noticed the saturation level dropping even further during our sensitivity test (when the lighting was minimal), but we're still adequately pleased with the camcorder's results here.

Low Light Comparison
Sony Bloggie Touch	Kodak Playsport
Sony MHS-CM5	Picsio GC-WP10

Low Light Colour Score Comparison		Compare the Sony Bloggie Touch to the Kodak Playsport
		Compare the Sony Bloggie Touch to the Sony MHS-CM5
		Compare the Sony Bloggie Touch to the Picsio GC-WP10

Low Light Noise (12.45)

The Bloggie Touch had its finest performance in our low light noise test, with the camcorder producing just 0.5675% noise. This is less noise than we usually see from ultracompact camcorders, and it is less than we measured on last year's Bloggie MHS-CM5 from Sony. (More on how we test low light noise.)

Noise at 60 lux Auto
Sony Bloggie Touch 100% Crop	Kodak Playsport 100% Crop	Sony MHS-CM5 100% Crop	Picsio GC-WP10 100% Crop

You can see from the crop above that the Bloggie Touch produced a clean image in low light, although there was some discolouration present. It definitely retained some of the sharpest images we've seen from ultracompact camcorders in low light, and it strongly exceeded the Picsio GC-WP10 and Kodak Playsport in that category. You can see some interference, however, on the horizontal trumpet in the crop above. Notice how the straight lines run a bit askew with jagged edges. This is very common and you can see this same problem on the CM5 and GC-WP10. while the GC-WP10 has a bright image without much sharpness or detail.

Low Light Noise Score Comparison		Compare the Sony Bloggie Touch to the Kodak Playsport
		Compare the Sony Bloggie Touch to the Sony MHS-CM5
		Compare the Sony Bloggie Touch to the Picsio GC-WP10