Comments on: Buyer’s guide: Buying a digital camera for your kids

By: PictaBoo

PictaBoo — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:49:45 +0000

Good suggests, really.

Thanks!

By: photographyVoter.com

photographyVoter.com — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 03:00:36 +0000

Buyer’s guide: Buying a digital camera for your kids…

John Watson goes through his process for buying a camera for kids. Lots of things to think about and lots of options out there….

By: kris

kris — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:27:32 +0000

Ebay is the way to go. Got my son an old Fujifilm too for about 30 bucks and the is the envy of his friends.

By: Pouzer

Pouzer — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:07:48 +0000

Look at the Olympus waterproof Stylus line, while a bit more expensive, it takes falls up to 5 feet and is waterproof to 10-30 feet. I also have instilled the wrist strap policy with my kids (now 5 and 2) and it works well.

By: Sandy

Sandy — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:40:20 +0000

My son got a Fisher Price camera for Christmas when he was 2 1/2. It lasted almost a year. So for this last Christmas (age 3 1/2) he asked Santa for a camera. I didn’t want another kid’s camera because they’re terrible. I looked around and found a cheap $50 camera, but that was just as worthless as the kid’s ones.

Then I had a flash of brilliance - Ebay! I found an old Canon PowerShot SD300 Digital Elph that was used and a little beat up, but that just showed me how rugged it was. It’s only 4 megapixels, but he doesn’t need any more than that. The controls are very simple for him to use, and he loves having a real camera just like mommy’s! I love that it takes great pictures worthy of keeping!

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:16:00 +0000

Great article! Just bought my six year old an older Fujifilm model that’s so much better than her little Tinkerbell camera. Agree with Dave-my daughter is most interested in making movies though.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:44:46 +0000

Years ago I had what would have been an awesome kids camera, the Sony U20, which was tiny and only had a couple buttons on it, and turned on and off by opening the lens cover. Sadly, I sold it before my daughter was old enough for her own camera. She has had an HP camera since her fourth birthday, and though I consider it far from ideal, it’s been just fine. If I were to be buying one today, I think my daughter would be most interested in movie capability, cute shutter noises, and easy printing, while I’m interested in durability and battery life (preferably Li batteries because she doesn’t use it that often). She’s almost seven now and knows how to make prints to post or cut up into art projects. I have to admit that I set her camera down into the 2 megapixel size so that she can fit more on the card and because I generate enough gigabytes of photos that I don’t need her adding any.

By: alli

alli — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:34:23 +0000

I feel exactly the same way. We “gave” our son our old Nikon coolpix when we upgraded to the Canon S3. He took some interesting pictures… of his fingers. (He is only 3.) I have looked at the kid cameras but I can’t stomach giving my kid something so subpar as far as photo quality.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:43:51 +0000

I agree John!

We were on the waiting list for one of the Fisher Price “Kid-tough” cameras before they were released. Amazon delivered it the day they were available to the public. I’ve been disappointed ever since. Yes, it is kid tough - it has stood up to much abuse. However, my daughter didn’t like the images it took - and she was only 3 at the time!

She uses our point and shoot Panasonic Lumix all the time. The one rule is that she use the wrist strap every time she touches it. She’s fine with that. Now she’s 5 and gets many of our best family photos!

By: Aaron B. Hockley

Aaron B. Hockley — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:32:21 +0000

I’d say it depends on the kid and how much money you want to spend. My daughter (three and a half) is just now getting the hang of holding the camera steady. Yesterday we were out and she was shooting and I watched her drop the camera three times onto concrete. With the rubberized build of the Fisher Price camera, it just bounced. I don’t think you’re going to find that build quality in a comparably priced “real” camera.