In November my 3 1/2 year old son Max found an old cell phone of mine and he discovered the camera function on it. He started carrying the thing everywhere and snapping pictures.
On my days off I will often take him with me when I’m looking for some interesting things to take pictures of…
So, my wife and I talked and thought he might enjoy having a camera to take with him on those trips so that he could shoot some pics too. It might even be more fun than shooting the world through the lens of a crappy old camera phone.
Thus began the quest for kids cameras. As an amateur photographer dad, I was looking for something in between “hmmm… I wonder what would happen if you dropped that thing” and “man, that camera’s so crappy you could probably run over it with a ‘Big-Wheel’ a few times and nothing will happen”. I discovered as I looked around that most kids cameras are in the Big Wheel category. You can’t break-em but the quality of the pics they take…um yeah, pretty close to the old crappy camera phone genre.
You can check this review of a few kids cameras.
The price point for most of these cameras is between $30-$60.
After review digging, comparing test shots, and looking at the packaging in the store for info etc. we finally decided on the VTech Kidizoom. For about $50 it takes pictures that you can recognize (if you hold your hand still) and it has some functionality that Max will grow into over the next year or 2 (games, video option, adding clipart etc.).
You can read a review of it on Ken Rockwell’s site.
Overall, not a bad camera for an older 3 year old. Max hasn’t had any trouble figuring out the basic functions of the camera. You might even be able to run it over with a Big Wheel if you really wanted to.
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Author: Ryan Young (18 Articles)