Zac Bowling’s Mind

On 11-9-2008, the Holiday Inn Dallas, on Central Expressway was demolished. I got video footage of the event, and was going to post the video to youtube. What I didn’t realize is how many other people posted the same video.

Here is mine in 720p:

Here is a BUNCH of others:

Last night I got the EZ300HD pocket HD camera from RCA from Circut City. It was $129 ($140 after taxes). I had a chance to play with the older Small Wonder EZ200 which I really enjoyed.

The great part about this camera is that it records at 720p (1280×720). You can see a sample below.

RCA Small Wonder EZ300HD - Test 1 from Zac Bowling on Vimeo.

Specs:

• Records in three modes: HD (1280×720), HQ (640×480?), and WebQ (320×240?)
• 2 GB of internal storage
• Supports full-sized SD cards up to 32GB for additional storage (with a built in adapter for MicroSD cards)
• HDMI port (Mini-HDMI size)
• Standard AV out (RCA Video and Audio)
• Still photos at 1280×720
• Propitiatory Li-Ion battery with an included external charger
• Flip out camera (so you can record yourself)
• Lip stick like, pop out USB port
• Landscape and Macro switch focusing switch
• 4x digitial zoon
• Package includes: Lanyard, carrying sack, USB extension cord, AV Cable, battery charger and power connector

First off, I loved the RCA Small Wonder EZ200 when I played with in Palo Alto earler this month. Very simple. I’m a techy so I normally love feature overload, but I did love the simplicity of that camera.

The EZ300HD remains to true to that concept of being simple. It’s a little bit bigger but it packs a much larger screen (the same size as the Kodak Vi6 HD Pocket Camera). You can record about 1 hour of HD or 6 hours on WebQ using the 2GB of internal storage. You can record youself using the flip out camera, and the HDMI port really surprised me.

Unboxing:

Conclusion:
It’s a pretty fun camera but it has one major issue. The specific H.264 codec implementation that they choose for the camera isn’t quiet compatible with anything but a few off beat tools. That means the ease of use is sort of killed by having to install a 3rd party codec. Thankfully this noted everywhere and if you are a Windows user then the codec is stored on the device in a little installer. If you are using a Mac though, you have to install the latest VLC (0.9.4) to play (and convert) the video or ffmpeg (or ffmpegX) to convert the video to a format that you can use in other tools like iMovie, Final Cut, or Adobe Premier (unless you upload directly to the web, which YouTube and Vimeo are able to convert it for you).

The audio isn’t very great. Records mono at 22,000hz using a propitiatory Microsoft codec (but everything seems to handle it ok). The sound isn’t that great though. The microphone is sort of cheap.

All in all though, for $129, its not to bad. If you want something mobile, cheap, and can make pretty good quality videos for YouTube or vlogging, its decent.