RCA EZ101 Small Wonder Camcorder with 1.5-Inch LCD Screen

by Thomson Consumer Electronics

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4 x 1.3 x 2.3 inches ; 9.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000FLXTBQ
• Item model number: EZ101
• Batteries: 2 AA batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,055 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004

Product Description

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

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad for $100, July 28, 2006

By 

J. Cortelyou (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: RCA EZ101 Small Wonder Camcorder with 1.5-Inch LCD Screen (Electronics)

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.

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for kids, November 22, 2006

By 

Gary Coker - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: RCA EZ101 Small Wonder Camcorder with 1.5-Inch LCD Screen (Electronics)

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.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pocket size, excellent clarity and incredibly simple!!, June 23, 2006

By 

S.W. Richards (Burlington, Vermont United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: RCA EZ101 Small Wonder Camcorder with 1.5-Inch LCD Screen (Electronics)

I just purchased the Small Wonder a couple of days ago and I can't believe how simple it is. Our kids (age 9 and 11) love it's simplicity and the ability to take instant videos. It is incredibly easy to use and as small as a compact digital camera so we will be able to take much more candid videos while traveling on an upcoming trip to Ecuador without that intrusive feeling of a larger video camera. It is unbelievably easy to flip open the USB plug, insert it into the computer and instantly load the videos. No disk to load...its all included within the "Small Wonder". I never thought I'd see the day when you could fit a video camera into your shirt pocket. I highly recommend it to anyone, especially a traveler!!