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Incidentally, though I chose YouTube to share my video - I'm still waiting for it to go virile - RCA has partnered with Box.net as a virtual storage space for Small Wonder users to upload and share their videos. You get 1 GB of free online storage and a maximum upload size of 35 MB per file.

Though most camcorders and cell phones double as still cameras, enabling you to take VGA or better pictures, the Small Wonder just shoots video. Once in your computer, though, the Memory Manager software enables you to grab a frame at a resolution based on whether the video was recorded in HQ or LP mode. It's not an ideal way to save images, but it does keep the camcorder's own functions to a minimum.

BOTTOM LINE TV screen size and resolution in the living room have so dramatically increased over the past decade that source components, including camcorders, have struggled to keep up. When it comes to capturing a family's important life events, anyone interested in home video would be hard pressed to recommend anything less than a miniDV camcorder, if not a high-def model. But RCA didn't design this product as the wedding videographer's weapon of choice. It's no surprise that the video and audio quality of this toy-like device will seem sub-par in a home theater, but that's not the point. The RCA EZ201 Small Wonder camcorder is really meant for shooting spontaneous moments and then leveraging the sharing power of the Internet. It's amazing how forgiving the YouTube generation is when it comes to quality if the video is funny or dramatic enough. For them, any video trumps no video. Besides parents taking an EZ201 with them without a second thought when they leave home, the Small Wonder is a fine first camcorder for a child full of wonder.

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