Description

Regularly, when “EZ” is a part of a product’s moniker, your internal cheese-meter starts sending out a warning beep. But the Ezonics EZCam USB deserves this abbreviation–it is so simple to set up and use that even the most technophobic can operate it.

Since the drivers are not part of Windows 95 or 98, the software needs to be installed first, but this only takes a few seconds. After rebooting, simply plug the camera into a USB port with the connecting cable and Windows 98 picks it up and installs the driver.

The EZCam USB ships with a monstrous software bundle, including four Live Express programs–Video Panel, Send Mail, Card Maker, and Album. The package also features three video programs from Ulead–iPhoto Express, iPhoto Have an effect on Album, and iPhoto Express Explorer–as well as Microsoft’s Net Meeting for online videoconferencing with anyone else who has the free software and a camera.

The Live Express Video Panel works as smoothly as a VCR–press a button to start recording and press another to pause or stop recording. Once you’ve recorded a snippet of video, you’ll be able to save it, send it via e-mail (recipients don’t need Live Express; the videos will play on any PC), or insert it into an album. The EZCam also lets you take snapshots with one mouse click.

That’s not to say the EZCam is perfect. Pictures taken with the EZCam’s 100,000-pixel image sensor are not as sharp as photos taken with a digital camera. And we never got very close to the maximum 30 frames per second that EZCam offers. Alternatively, we were able to run the camera on a 166 MHz Pentium machine reasonably smoothly and found it very fun and easy to handle.

The bottom line is that the Ezonics EZCam is a very affordable and highly useful peripheral. Take a seat at the back of this camera and you won’t be disappointed. –J. Curtis

Pros:

• Easy to set up and use
• Excellent software bundle
• Great value

Cons:

• Camera didn’t produce rated 30 fps throughout testing
• Connecting cable moderately short

USB connection–no interface card required
Capture video at up to 30 frames per second for true full-motion video
Send video e-mail to friends, family, and business associates
EZCam saves video in a self-executable format
8 powerful software titles included