RCA Small Wonder EZ201 Digital Camcorder

You just can’t scoop school librarians. Back in September 2007, when I praised the Flip Video camera as an incredibly affordable and efficient way to produce YouTube-style videos, I received a flurry of email from librarians thanking me for my review. However, they had decided instead to purchase the uncannily similar, but arguable more feature-packed RCA Small Wonder. Thinking I might have endorsed the lesser of two competing cameras, I was almost relieved when a second batch of readers’ emails questioned the quality of the Small Wonder’s audio and video. So I’m back on the case, comparing the RCA Small Wonder EZ201 to Pure Digital’s original Flip Video head-to-head to see once and for all if there’s a clearly superior model.

Overall, they’re much more similar than different, and though neither records high resolution video fit for the big screen, they both provide an inexpensive, easy way to create short videos for emailing or sharing on the Web. How similar are they? RCA recently added two models of Pure Digital cameras to the Small Wonder line that are essentially identical to Flip models, eliminating any doubts that both product lines emerged from the same drawing board.

Both the Small Wonder EZ201 and the Flip Video run on two AA batteries, have a flip-out USB connector, and 512 MB of base memory—enough to store 30 minutes of 640 x 480 (VGA) video. And both record MPEG-4 video and save it directly to flash memory as AVI files. So what distinguishes the EZ201 from the Flip? The RCA device features a tripod mount, critical in many recording situations, and a flip-out screen so that videographers can easily record themselves (a very Web 2.0 thing to do). As much as I liked the original Flip, I wished it had included those key features. The Small Wonder also sports an SD/MMC card slot so you can beef up your storage capacity and a switch that allows you to toggle your resolution down to 448 x 336 (Half VGA) for teensier file sizes.

On the negative side? The Flip clearly has better built-in software for basic video editing and sharing, but other differences are pretty subtle. Prompted by readers critical of the Small Wonder, I took a long look and listen to footage I shot using both cameras side by side. In the end, I did find that the video shot on the RCA camera tended to look a bit washed out compared to the slightly richer color reproduction of the Flip, which seemed to have a slight edge in the audio department, too, with less distortion when recording sibilant or loud sounds. It was a close contest, though. So close, I invite you to visit slj.com for the video version of this column. It contains clips shot on both cameras so that you can judge for yourself.