Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"EASY" best describes the aptly named Small Wonder camcorder, July 7, 2008
I was searching for a compact camcorder that used standard batteries instead of the usual rechargeable packs and discovered the RCA and the Flip Video which both use AA batteries. I found a demo Flip unit and thought the picture quality looked surprisingly good, but I really had to repeatedly mash the button to start or stop recording. Too tough for the family to use. So I ordered the RCA and an 8-Gig Micro-SD (memory) card which is unbelievably tiny; about the size of your pinky fingernail. With it I could record more than 4 hours in high quality mode or 16 hours in web quality mode. Amazing and very inexpensive! It powers-up instantly and the record button is easy to push. It also shoots still photos easily. It's simple transferring the files to a computer with it's built-in USB connector. The video files are AVI, so being a Mac family we have to convert them to use with iMovie or iDVD, but that's not a big deal using Quicktime Pro. The only other slight drawback is that the zoom is only about 2 to 1 and noticeably degrades the picture quality. But for it's size, cost and ease of use it's an easy trade-off. We'll shoot a lot more video because it's so quick and fun to have along, and use the bigger cameras for more zoom intensive shoots.
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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Far better than the Flip, let me tell you why, December 5, 2008
This little digital camcorder is giving Flip some competition, finally! My primary complaint about the Flip is that it has internal memory only, so if you want more recording time you have to upgrade your Flip to the newest model or download the video to your computer and erase the recordings on the Flip. With this camera, you can just upgrade to an 8 GB micro SD card (if the 2 GB included card is not enough for you).
The RCA Small Wonder Traveler has solved a lot of problems for our family. First, both of our Flips have broken over the past year and a half, so that put me in the market for a replacement. I stumbled upon this, and was decided to give it a try.
There are several reasons why this is superior to the Flip. First, it comes with a 2 GB micro SD card that will record one hour of "high quality" or four hours of web quality. We have been using the high quality mode which does a great job adjusting for the various lighting conditions whether or not we are indoors or out.
Secondly, this comes with a lens cap to keep your lens free of debris and scratches when stored.
Third, and most importantly, this has a flip-out screen so you can turn the screen out to face you while recording yourself. My son was previously using the Flip but had to always check and double check his camera placement for you tube videos because he could never tell if he was centered. This eliminates that problem so as you record you can see if you are in the recording field.
Additionally, this is a very rugged camera and would be great for outdoors and use by less than careful children. If you find that one hour of high quality recording (or four hours of web quality) is not enough time, you can upgrade to an 8 GB micro SD card to quadruple your time. This camera has been dropped a couple of times without injury.
Although the buttons are similar in function to the Flip, I was surprised to find a still photo button, so that makes it easy to use this as both a still camera and a video camera. Although the quality is certainly not as good as an 8 MP digital camera, I think this would make a nice back up camera or child's camera since it's so rugged and has both video and still modes.
This camcorder also comes with a tripod screw mount, so it works with the Joby GP1-01EN Gorillapod Flexible Tripod (Grey) for easy attachment in various places such as door handles, dressers, tables, chairs, buckets, railings, and more.
A USB extension cable is included to make it easy to hook up to your computer, as well as a carrying strap and pouch, 2 AA batteries, and a set of AV cables so it can be hooked up to the TV for instant playback.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
not as good as the flip, September 3, 2008
the camera looks nice, has a full size seperate SD card and a large viewing screen, and uses AA batteries..all these are pros.
the cons are, the video is very inferior compared to the flip (we bought both the rca ez210, ez205 AND FLIP ULTRA). the ez210 has slightly better video than it's smaller version the ez205...but still is fairly blurry, unable to see deatails the flip has no problem with. e.g. i video-ed a phone book ad and the flip was easily read but both rca's you could not read the printing...colors on the rca are washed out compared to the flip, and the rca does not nearly as well in low light and gets washed out in brighter colors, especially if there is any difference in gradients...my wife's face was washed out when the light from the outside window was on her, not so with the flip.
the rca ez210's video is only slightly better than the ez205. the rca takes a totally different jack connection when hooking to the tv than does the flip, the access to the USB connector on the rca is totally bizzare...you have to remove the carrying handle then push a button and then slide up an arm, which is very very short and not easliy connected to the computer. in doing so it is very easy to loose track of where the carrying handle was put...plus a few times doing this, i think the carrying handle would suffer a break at the plastic ends.
i got the rca for 111 at amazon, but another 20 off using buy later. i got the 1G flip for 50 at dellhome on a special. i feel the flip was far better in a deal and you could buy two of them for what i paid for the rcaez210. i sent the ez205 back as it's video was horrible. i am close to sending the rca ez210 back, but only the bottom line of 91dollars keeps me from doing that...plus the snapshot feature, the sd card and large screen,,,i just can not rate this anymore than 2 stars, and then only because i got a decent price, more money---it is just NOT worth more.
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