Design and Desirability

Acquire! Acquire!I’m a Sony whore. I know their stuff is more expensive than it needs to be, but just I love their design. I’ll buy outside the brand when there’s reason to — I went with an Epson projector because it was, quite simply, superior to anything Sony had to offer — but as a rule, I’ll look at Sony’s offerings first.

Anyway, for the last couple of years, Sony’s had this line of pocket camcorders, modeled after the Flip but designed to be more versatile. I’ve been keeping an eye on them, but I could never quite bring myself around to buying one.

The first-generation model, branded the Webbie, was cute but clunky, with an awkward joystick and a tiny video screen; the second generation, renamed the Bloggie, addressed a number of interactivity problems and expanded the screen a little but kept the weirdly flimsy form factor, with a swiveling lens design that felt like it’d get wobbly within hours of its first use. But they all shot 1080i or 1080p HD video, and they were all the size of a cell phone, and the idea of carrying something like that to a press conference or an interview was awfully tempting.

Well, the third generation came out this month — pictured above — and it’s gorgeous. Rechristened the Bloggie Touch, it’s been redesigned for simplicity and function, with one button for recording video, a separate camera button for stills and a big ol’ touchscreen interface for monitor and playback functions. It looks more like an iPhone and less like a friendly Dalek than the previous models, but then Daleks aren’t supposed to look friendly, are they?

Plus, you can shoot a feature with this thing. You probably shouldn’t, as it’s got no microphone input and the focus options are pretty limited … but what do you want for two hundred bucks?

So, you know. Want.

One thought on “Design and Desirability”

  1. Jeeze –

    It really does look like a Pocket Dalek. I wonder if you can program the word “Ex-ter-mi-nate!” into its low battery alarm feature, so you’ll never, EVER let it run dry.

    – MRH

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