Under-$150 camcorders are small, easy to use and easily connect to your Mac or Windows computer so you can burn a DVD, e-mail to relatives as an attachment or upload to your blog, to your MySpace or to other social networking profiles. Or, you can plug the camera to your TV and watch what you’ve just recorded.
The easiest to use is the new RCA Small Wonder ($129; mysmallwonder.com), which records 30 minutes of audio using a pair of AA batteries.
By spending about $20 more (or up to $50 less), you can get one of the camcorders by Mustek or other companies that also takes snapshots, plays MP3 music files, act as a Web cam and more. But none of those is as easy to operate as this camcorder.
The $129 Small Wonder is the kind of stuff consumer electronics manufacturers should be making more of. It’s portable, easy to use, works great and plays nicely with other gear. Given its competition, it should be priced lower.
Portability: The Small Wonder is a bit bigger than a deck of playing cards. I can tuck it into my messenger bag or my wife’s purse. I wish it had protective covers for its lens and LCD viewfinder, but it comes with a cloth pouch that’s easier to keep track of than a lens cap.
Ease of use: With only eight controls, the Small Wonder is practically goof-proof. I figured out how to turn it on, record, zoom and stop recording without unfolding the slight manual. Most folks will have similar success.
The color LCD shows me what I’m capturing while it keeps track of how long my recording session is, in minutes and seconds. After recording, I hit the play button and watch the LCD to see what I’ve captured (or I can use the included cable to connect the camcorder to a TV.) Two taps of the delete button gets rid of a video.
I wished it had pause, rewind and fast-forward buttons. Power users won’t be able to adjust the white balance, focus or any other settings.
Results: Even in low light, the camera captures fast action, such as our dog running around the house. The color is vibrant, and the images are crisp.
The built-in microphone picks up audio well enough, but I found that holding the camera about a foot away while I shot kept my recorded voice from sounding distorted on playback.
The two AA batteries lasted for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours of recording and playback.
Neither RCA nor Pure Digital — whose platform the Small Wonder is built on — wanted to share specs. Last summer, Pure Digital unveiled an awful $30 one-time-use camcorder that users could take to a CVS drugstore to have their video downloaded to a DVD after paying $13 and waiting an hour. This idea is much better.
Compatibility: Here’s where the Small Wonder shines. It has a hidden USB connector that hooks the camcorder to a Windows XP computer instantly (With a Mac, you’ll need to install software that sits inside the camera). The video is an ordinary.avi file, so I could burn it to a DVD, send it as an email attachment or post in on the Web.
Don’t have a computer? Take the Small Wonder to CVS, Rite-Aid, Ritz and Wolf Camera or about 8,000 other stores nationwide (Find one near you at www.puredigitalinc. com). For $13, you can wait an hour then get back your camera and a DVD of your video.
Price: While the $129 price seems nice, other camcorders in this price range and lower let you take still pictures, give you more settings to play with and even will haul your MP3 music files.
But if all you want to do is point and shoot, the Small Wonder may be the ticket.
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egwinn@tribune.com
