What Digital Camera to Buy for a 3 Year Old?

[James Fee]

My son really enjoys playing with my digital cameras and I've been thinking of getting him one for Christmas. I quick look at Amazon shows that pretty much every "Kid Camera" gets horrible ratings. I just sold a older Nikon Coolpix that I probably would have given to him, but I didn't think far enough ahead to realize he wants a camera just like his Dad's. These are the requirements that I think I need for him, but I'm pretty much at a loss of what to buy him.

• rear LCD screen (pretty much every kid camera I've seen doesn't have one)
• has rechargeable batteries (again most kid cameras only take AA batteries)
• auto shutoff
• good image quality
• flash (with red-eye)
• good size for small hands (needs to have a button that he can press and he needs to be ble to turn it on by himself)
• PictBridge support would be nice, but not required

Most kids digital cameras don't have autoshutoff and when the batteries run down, they lose all the pictures on the memory. I figure used is probably the best way to go mostly because I don't want to spend over $100 on a camera that could end up at the bottom of the pool this summer. Anyone have any good ideas?

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/kidz_camera.jpg

[Chris Gohlke]

James, I started writing a quick review on a cheap camera I had bought 6 months ago, but never got around to finishing. But, it might be of help -

"The new ISDV from Aiptek pays close attention to detail, and let's you do the same with a maximum resolution of 5 mega pixels and a 1.8" LTPS color LCD. Record videos at 30 frames per second in MPEG-4 format, and never worry about shaking clips with the new image stabilizer function. The ISDV also offers a lithium-ion battery with charger so you dont need to worry about buying batteries!"

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/prod_PKDV57_lg.jpg
Just out of curiosity, I picked up one of these at Target last week (they were on sale for just $97). For the price, I think this is pretty amazing. As you can see from the following samples...

Sample Snapshot
http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/assets/common/FileObject/jpg.gif in.JPG (http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/media/users/11/in.JPG) (Size: 942.6 KB)

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/assets/common/FileObject/jpg.gif out.JPG (http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/media/users/11/out.JPG) (Size: 913.0 KB)

Sample Video

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/assets/common/FileObject/no_ext.gif inside.ASF (http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/media/users/11/inside.ASF) (Size: 2,748.1 KB)

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/assets/common/FileObject/no_ext.gif outside.ASF (http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/media/users/11/outside.ASF) (Size: 2,887.1 KB)

Build quality is OK, but it does feel cheap if only because it is so light. Also, I have found that it only really records at 15 fps rather than the advertised 30. Also, the low light performance (especially for video) is not that great. I think this would cover all of your requirements, so you might want to check it out. As a toy or just a beater camera, it does the job.

[jeffd]

I would skip the "kids"cam and seek out a quality but older camera. Ebay seems to have canon a40's for just over $100. It's automatic mode is great, though it isn't any smaller then your normal 35mm type camera.

Btw you speak of AA batteries as if they were bad. You do know theyve had rechargable AA's for a good 2 decades or so? ;) I only want a camera that takes AA's, those custome rechargables are a ton of money to replace and if you run out of power mid shoot, you cant pick up another set at the local qwikie mart.

[James Fee]

I think I'm going to wait until after Christmas when everyone puts their old digital cameras up on eBay. I tried to bid on a couple Coolpixs and PowerShots, but people are paying WAY TOO MUCH for them right now. Tis the season I guess...