Product Description

Never miss a memory with the RCA Small Wonder – the affordable, everyday digital camcorder! Where is your camcorder, in the closet with a dead battery? Ready to go but no tapes for recording? Does it require an engineering degree to use it? Or has the high cost of digital video camcorders kept you from buying one? Then the RCA Small Wonder EZ101 is for you. It’s as small as a digital camera and as easy as, well, 1-2-3. Shoot, share, save. Just point and shoot, it’s that easy. When you’re done, take the Small Wonder to the nearest Pure Digital DVD Processing Lab and have them make a DVD with your video. Or you can save Small Wonder video to your computer with an easy connection. So what are you waiting for? Don’t miss another precious moment. Just shoot, share and save with the RCA Small Wonder.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22299 in Camera & Photo
• Color: Silver
• Brand: Thomson Consumer Electronics
• Model: EZ101
• Dimensions: 2.31" h x 1.31" w x 4.00" l, 1.90 pounds
• Display size: 1.5

Features

• Point-and-shoot simplicity -- just aim and press record
• Instant playback/delete, so you can see what you just shot and delete it if you don't want it
• Built-in memory holds up to 30 minutes of video clips; no tapes required
• Built-in Simple Software allows you to download video through high speed USB connection
• Convenient USB arm allows quick connect to PC or laptop for easy viewing and archiving of video clips

From the Manufacturer
From the Manufacturer Never miss a memory with the RCA Small Wonder -- the affordable, everyday digital camcorder!

Where is your camcorder, in the closet with a dead battery? Ready to go but no tapes for recording? Does it require an engineering degree to use it? Or has the high cost of digital video camcorders kept you from buying one?

Then the RCA Small Wonder EZ101 is for you. It’s as small as a digital camera and as easy as, well, 1-2-3. Shoot, share, save.

Front and back view of the Small Wonder

Just point and shoot, it’s that easy. When you’re done, take the Small Wonder to the nearest Pure Digital DVD Processing Lab and have them make a DVD with your video. Or you can save Small Wonder video to your computer with an easy connection.

So what are you waiting for? Don’t miss another precious moment. Just shoot, share and save with the RCA Small Wonder.

EZ101 Small Wonder Camcorder Highlights

• Shoot, save, and share up to 30 minutes of digital video
• Affordable, everyday digital video camcorder
• Easy to play and delete files on camcorder
• 2X zoom
• View on bright 1.5-inch LCD screen or output directly to TV (cable included)
• Easy to connect to computer with convenient USB arm
• Automatically compresses your videos to make them easy to email
• Runs on 2 AA batteries
• Convenient black velvet carrying pouch included
• Thousands of drugstore and camera store locations that can easily burn Small Wonder video to DVD

Customer Reviews

Not bad for $100
I spent the afternoon testing this video camera in various "torture test" lighting conditions. It auto corrects well for environmental brightness. For the most part it handled them well with good video quality and color saturation. The camera does not work at all in low or very low light conditions. This is not the camera to use in a dimly lit club environment for example. The camera records the best quality video in brightly lit rooms and daytime outdoor environments.

The camera captures at 448 by 336 pixels at 30 frames per second using the MPEG-4 XVID codec. It records audio using Microsoft ADPCM at a bit rate of 64kb/s. The audio quality is good considering the mic is inside the camera's case. The problem with this mic setup is that anytime you press zoom, click record or stop you hear that button click sound very loudly during video playback. I would consider this the single worst aspect of the camera. Another problem I encountered is that the video software supplied with the camera would not install on my up to date Windows XP PC. However you can still easily access and retrieve your recorded videos by opening the camera as a hard drive via the computer. The camera sets itself up automatically as a hard drive when connected via the supplied USB cable to the computer. In my tests, 3.5 minutes of video yields an AVI file about 26.5 MB in size.

Video playback directly from the camera via the supplied composite cable to a TV looks pretty pixilated. The quality worsens when video is recorded in lower light levels. Video file playback on a computer display looks much better.

The interface on the camera is extremely minimal. There are 4 buttons: Power, Play, Record, Delete and a 4-way directional pad for digital zooming and cycling through record videos. There is no ability to adjust any other settings.

All in all, the RCA Small Wonder an inexpensive and relatively quality solution for recording up to 30 minutes of video in normal lighting conditions. Good for recording quick movies and sending them to friends via the Internet. And not so good for recording important life events and watching them on a TV.

Great for kids
I bought this camera for my 9-year-old son to "make movies" with and he loves it. The best feature is the ultimate simplicity of the camera -- it has only 4 buttons (power, record, play, delete) and a 4-way directional pad and uses plain old AA batteries. Press the power button, press Record, and you're making movies. Press Record again to stop. You can give it to a child and he'll literally be shooting video 10 seconds later -- it's that simple and easy.

Each "movie" is saved to its own file on the camera, so you can use the directional pad to scroll through them and play them back instantly, right on the camera. The screen and speaker are surprisingly good. And the built-in USB connector and software make it ridiculously simple to transfer the video to your computer. I was worried that 30 minutes wouldn't be enough storage between transfers, but it's actually a very long time as video goes.

Most of all, this camera is just plain FUN. Because you know the quality of the video is just average (though better than you might think), you don't have to worry about it. Use your "real" camcorder for capturing important memories, but give this little camera to a kid and watch him have a blast with it. You'll enjoy seeing the world from a kid's perspective, too, when you watch the resulting clips.

Fun, Pocket-sized Camcorder
I bought this camera on a whim and I love it. Put it in your pocket. Simple to use, a 7-year old can 'film'. It is point-&-shoot easy: push a button, it films, push again, it stops. Press play and show your friend what you just filmed. That's a lot of fun(!) and appeal of the camera.(Simply fun.)
Downside: NO MEMORY CARD SLOT, only 30 mins video/no volume control/slight digital zoom/TV viewing shows large green timer/Cannot film while plugged into TV/So-So color

Upside: Cheap camcorder/Take it anywhere-dinner/party/park, etc./Plug into late-model TV and see video/You will take more video because it is no big deal/Very good in light & dark/special feature: compress video into small email file and send to parents. Camera has a popout usb port.

I love this camcorder. Very light weight, easy to use, on a whim I take a video of the kids with NO big-deal camcorder, "I'm video-making now" documentation. It is fun like a disposable camea. Capture moments meaningless now, but will be fun to see when the kids are older.