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.
See more reviews about: RCA EZ101 Small Wonder Camcorder with 1.5-Inch LCD Screen
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