At first glance the Snap seems to have been designed to take on the popular Flip camcorders. It’s about the same size, similarly priced at $229, and offers High Definition video recording with packaged software that makes it easy to upload your clips to online services such as YouTube and DailyMotion. Where it falls short of that expectation is in simplicity and convenience. Hidden inside that fun, sporty body is an array of advanced features, powered by complicated controls, and a dependence on accessories and memory cards that will only gain proper use from camera buffs and geeks willing to master them. Sony has noticed that even camera buffs are interested in the Flip trend, and so they have essentially designed one just for them, offering the size and budget, but with more features and quality.

Design

With its brightly coloured casing and pocket-sized form factor the Snap is a fun, sporty camera that feels light and comfortable in the hand. Its lens rests in a swivable housing to make it easy for you to shoot yourself and a built-in side microphone captures the side regardless of which way the lens is facing. Its 1.8” screen offers a detailed display that does a reasonable job of resisting daylight.

 

 

There is no built-in memory to the Snap and so right out of the box it is incapable of taking photos or video until you purchase an additional Memory Stick Duo. While this does allow you to expand the amount of memory in place, letting you choose a longer recording time if desired, it also adds an additional $25 - $135 to the cost of the camera.

Instead of traditional AA batteries, the Snap includes both a removable rechargeable battery and an AC port for you to plug in an optional AC adapter. You can connect it to your television with an included AV cable and to your computer with an included USB cable. Most pocket camcorders include the USB connector as part of the camera’s design to prevent users from losing their USB cables. Here Sony still uses the traditional method.

Controls

The Snap’s weakness is its controls. Whereas other pocket camcorders keep it simple with a big, red record button and minimal navigational controls, the Snap has one record button just for making movies and another for taking still photos. Rotating the lens is enough to turn the unit on or off, but there’s also a big power button on the side. A directional joystick is used to navigate on-screen commands, but not the zoom which has its own controls. In addition to the playback button there’s also a “ShareMark” button for you to flag photos and clips for uploading later on and a Menu button to call up additional options, and a dedicated delete button.

 

It’s all a bit much, especially when combined with the endless menu options and on-screen histograms and indicators. It’s more than just setting the clock, choosing the image size, and choosing a recording mode (which oddly enough is mapped to the delete key), but there’s options for the screen’s brightness, file numbering system, memory formats, etc. If it wasn’t for the manual I wouldn’t have a clue as to what the “ShareMark” button is for, it’s labeled with an icon of a globe being swirled by an arrow.

Performance

The Snap is a 5 Megapixel camera with a fixed focus lens and a 4X digital zoom. It can record still images in five different sizes (VGA up to 5 MP) and video in three modes including VGA, 720p, and 1080p, all at 30 frames per second. It offers five different scene modes; Auto, Backlight, Lowlight, Landscape, and Sports.

As its name implies, the Snap is quick to power on and very responsive to start shooting. The rotating lens is very secure and will indeed keep any angle you pivot it too. The fixed focus lens does an excellent job of capturing images both near and far and between quick movements and changes in subject matter.

The 4X zoom is sluggish and stutters, leaving it best as an option to set before you start recording. The resulting clips and images I took with the camera were very crisps and clear, the colour range is good and the ability to capture fast moving action, like the frothing rush of churning water in the clip below shows great performance.

Although the scene modes do offer helpful adjustments, the reality is that in most instances I used the Snap impulsively to capture action around me and there wasn’t the set-up time to get much practical use out of them.

Online Sharing

Embedded into the camera is Sony’s PMB Portable software which autoruns once you connect it to a PC. The software doesn’t support Mac computers, where it instead shows up as a traditional flash drive and files can be dragged and dropped for transfer.

The PMB Portable software allows you to instantly view your content and quickly upload it to an impressive selection of services including YouTube, DailyMotion, Shutterfly, Picasa, and Photobucket. As advertised it was very quick to connect, convert, and upload content online.

This is the only function offered. There are no editing features, no ability to capture stills, or organize content. For that users will have to transfers their content into another company’s software.

The Snap Is In The Results, Not In The Use

The Sony Mobile HD Snap Camera offers a quick-boot up process, fast performance, and 1080p playback that makes it worth connecting the camera up to an HDTV for viewing. For those looking for Sony’s version of an easy, convenient pocket camcorder for quick clips for YouTube, this isn’t it. It’s complicated controls, stuttering zoom, and extra memory card cost keep it from taking a position as an alternative to the popular Flip.