Kids Digital Cameras

Choosing kids digital cameras for pre-teens can be a challenge for parents. I’ll discuss some of the things to look for to help make this decision a little easier. Maybe your child started with one of the pre-school or younger kids digital cameras for ages three and up and you are thinking it’s time to transition. Or maybe this is your child’s first introduction to photography and you want to find something that will last them a while and keep them interested in photography. There are a couple of things to think about in either of these scenarios. Keep in mind that there are no hard and fast rules with regards to your child’s age as every child is different and will have different needs from their camera. If your child is coming from using one of the younger kids digital cameras you may have a bit more insight into what they liked or disliked to help inform what kind of camera to get next. If this is your child’s first camera you may want to sit down and discuss together to see what they have in mind and how they’d like to use their camera. A child who has really taken to photography and wants to print pictures at high quality will want a different type of camera than the child who needs more of a rugged camera they want to take everywhere for quick snapshots. Let’s go into more detail on some of the criteria you’ll want to evaluate to help you choose:

Camera Body

The design of the camera body is important and will vary depending on how rugged you need the camera to be. If your child has previous experience handling a camera responsibly and wants to be able to zoom you can get a camera with a telescoping lens. On the other hand, if you anticipate drops or less careful handling of the camera you’ll want to make sure you get a camera with a fixed lens that does not protrude beyond the camera body. Dropping a camera with a telescoping lens extended is an almost sure way to say goodbye to your hard earned cash.

Resolution

Here you’ll be looking at Megapixels which measure the resolution of the images the cameras sensors are able to capture. Generally the higher the Megapixels the better the image quality and ability to output large prints. If your child is interested in printing and high quality images you’ll want to look for cameras with greater than 5 megapixels. If not, looking for lower Megapixel cameras can save you money. There are some good kids digital cameras in this category that are usually “skinned” with designs of popular cartoon or movie characters that fall into this category.

Memory

Memory comes in two types, internal and external. Internal memory is the memory your camera comes with and varies by camera. This will determine how many pictures you can take before it becomes full and you either have to transfer to the computer or delete to make room for more. Most cameras have SD expansion slots for external memory. This is the type of memory you can buy separately in SD card form and insert into the SD expansion slot in the camera. SD cards are generally cheap and can provide a large amount of storage so I’d recommend always picking up a large capacity SD card along with the camera so the internal memory is not a limiting factor when comparing cameras.

Battery Life

You’ll want to understand the type of batteries your kids digital cameras will need. Some use rechargeable battery packs, some use AA or AAA batteries. Either type of batteries are fine but you’ll want to make sure the camera you get your child doesn’t run through disposable batteries like crazy or this will add to the expense and possibly frustration for both of you. There are many kids digital cameras to choose from and there are certainly lots of opinions out there so we’d love to hear what’s worked for your pre-teen and any advice you can share with others.

Designed for young teens and up, Disney has announced the Pix Twist as part of an upcoming line of kids digital cameras for the Fall. The Pix Twist has a screen that rotates as you twist so you can get shots of yourself, friends and family, and makes taking group shots easy.

The camera is rated at 5 megapixels which should yield some good quality images. Storage is said to be 16MB of internal memory and is expected to support SD cards although this has not been confirmed. The camera will also ship with custom Disney software allowing kids to customize their pictures by adding Disney themed borders and possibly characters from your computer.

Suggested retail price is $59.99.

In our last post, Shopping for Kids Digital Cameras, we advised getting kids digital cameras that are durable and easy to use. Here we’ll go into a bit more detail on some of the additional features that will differentiate these digital cameras from each other. Again, this series focuses primarily on younger kids ages three and up. As kids get older and have more experience with digital cameras some of these will be less important and we’ll be touching on that topic in future posts.

Large LCD screen

Look for a camera with a large LCD screen. Kids will want to review pictures they’ve just taken and this will make it easier for them to see if they got the shot they wanted. This will be particularly important when they’re just starting out and figuring out how to frame shots to capture their subject. 

Binocular Viewfinder

Kids will generally have a much easier time taking pictures using both eyes rather than one. This is a popular feature that can get them going right away with digital photography.

Auto-shutoff feature

Kids digital cameras will go through batteries rather quickly without this type of feature. Remember, kids may put the camera down and forget to turn it off so this can be a very useful feature to have.

SD Card Memory Slot

Unlike most traditional digital cameras, kids digital cameras will offer internal as well as additional memory for taking pictures. Look on the packaging for mention of SD Card slot that will allow you to buy an additional SD memory card to take additional pictures. 

This will greatly extend the number of pictures your child can take without having to delete existing pictures from the camera. This is particularly important as you may not introduce picture management when they’re first getting started.

Easy to access compartments

You’ll want the most frequently used ports compartments to be easily accessible. For example, to transfer pictures to the computer you’ll be using the USB port. You want to make sure this is easy to get to for you, but not exposed so your child doesn’t. The same goes for the memory SD slot and battery compartments.

TV Port

Some cameras allow you to hook them up directly to the television using an included cable. This can be a fun feature so that you don’t first have to transfer to the PC to view the pictures. 

All of these features will of course vary from camera to camera and affect the price you pay. Try to pick the ones that are really important to you and set a budget when shopping for your first kids digital camera.

Looking to introduce your child to digital photography for the first time? We’ll go over some things to look for when shopping for your first digital camera for kids. Children as young as three years old can get started with kids digital cameras and you’ll want to pick one that is appropriate for their age. Here we’ll give an overview of shopping for younger kids and we’ll follow-up on advice for shopping for older kids in future posts.

One of the suggestions I’ve read from a couple of different sources online is to look for the latest or most popular model as seen on TV or ads. Their reasoning is kids will be proud of their camera and want to show it off to their friends. I have to say I completely disagree with this advice and would caution you against buying something merely because it’s on TV ads or because it’s the newest model out. Your goal here should be to get your kids interested in taking pictures, not brand names and consumerism in my opinion. This may be a bit controversial so I’d love to hear your comments on this.

Another reason not to go along with this advice is that, particularly when it comes to electronics, you don’t really want to buy the newest thing. Often there just isn’t enough information out there about the quality of the product. Wait until the market has had a chance to test the product and do a little bit of research online before spending your hard earned money on a substandard camera.

My recommendation is to focus on two major areas when shopping for kids digital cameras. These are durability and ease of use. You’ll want a camera that can survive the rough handling by younger kids especially if you plan on having more than one child share the camera. You’ll also want to make sure they can pick up the camera right away and start having fun taking pictures.

These two areas are generally what set kids digital cameras apart from traditional digital cameras but it’s worth taking note what makes these specialized cameras durable and easy to use. Starting with the camera body you might notice kids digital cameras are generally ruggedized (usually a one piece rubber encased body) with no moving parts. This helps the camera survive drops and even spills and makes it easier to grasp with small hands. Ease of use is measured in how quickly the child can get going with the camera. Automatic shooting settings, large buttons, large LCD screen and a simple interface all contribute to the ease of use of the camera.

Of course, there are plenty of other technical features you may want to factor in. These will be the ones that have an effect on the price you end up paying. We’ll go into more detail on these in a following post and would love to hear back on what you look for when shopping for kids digital cameras.