My Little Little Camera

October 25, 2011 2:38 AM

Can I have your recommendations on a digital camera for a 3 year old?

Ever since I read this post on kottke I've looked forward to getting the kid a camera. She's sneaked her mom's point and shoot enough times that I still think it's a good idea. My own search has come up with this Kodak. I know there's been Qs like this before but not recent enough. Thanks!

posted by Spumante to Shopping (16 answers total)

Not sure where in the world you are but I bought this: Digital Toddlers Camera for my niece, and she loves it so much she sleeps with it. Now my niece is 6, and the minimum recommended age for the camera is 36 months, so depending on the 3 year old, it should be hardy enough. Pictures are 'dumb-phone' camera quality (3 - 5 pixels or thereabouts) and it takes standard batteries (so best to invest in some rechargeable), but as far as kids cameras go I'd highly recommend it.

If you trust this 3 year old in question to not drop the camera (too much), then a ebay purchase of an older point and shoot canon or nikon might do the trick. They are cheap, fairly replaceable, and I only mention those to brands as I have owned older versions of both and seen tier models survive unfortunate tumbles off of car roofs, and also being dropped from standing height onto pavement.

Good luck.

Also, if you buy the camera be prepared to be tech support for that camera as children love showing off their pic's almost as much as they love taking them. Setting up a flickr account dedicated to child's pic's might be a good idea to archive those first shots :D
posted by Faintdreams at 3:04 AM on October 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

We bought our son this VTech one when he was four. It looks quite similar to the one Faintdreams has. It has lots of kid-friendly features, like the ability to apply a selection of different effects and frames to photos. It also has a handful of simple games that are quite useful as back-of-the-car entertainment on long trips.

It's quite solidly built and has stood up to a fair amount of abuse over the past 12 months. The picture quality isn't to the standards of a grown-up camera, but it's good enough that my son gets a lot of pleasure from it.

In some ways it might have been better to have given him something that just takes pictures. But then again, without all the other bells and whistles, he probably wouldn't use it to take pictures nearly as often.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 3:49 AM on October 25, 2011

Best answer: Fisher Price makes a great camera. It's waterproof and shockproof. Also, economical at $20! If you want to get a camera that you can all use, try the Olympus Tough. It's shockproof, waterproof, heatproof and freeze proof. I'm sure there are technical terms, but you get the idea.
posted by Yellow at 4:48 AM on October 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

My neighbor's rough-on-everything kid has the Fisher Price, got it when he was 3, and it's lasted three years so far. It takes reasonably decent pictures. The one he has has no preview screen and stored a limited number of pictures; the newer ones have a preview screen and store 2,000 pictures, so probably the pictures have improved as well. He loves it. He takes a lot of pictures of his feet and people with no heads, but he's improved!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:29 AM on October 25, 2011

We got our son the fisher-price camera. It takes OK, lo-fi pictures. Be aware that it's brutal on batteries. But it has survived for the past 3 years without problem.
posted by DarkForest at 5:35 AM on October 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Some friends of mine have a three year old (who, from my observation, seems to be a little bit more chill than your average three year old, but not by a whole lot), and whenever she gets the itch to take pictures, they hand her their little Cannon point-and-shoot or an iPhone and let her go to town. Nothing has gotten (too) damaged, and it saves them from having to shell out money for a kid's camera that she might lose interest in after a day or two. Also, since it's just a better camera, the few times when it's actually in focus, the pictures are great. So I agree with Faintdreams; if you want to get her her own camera, look for a cheap, used "grown up" camera on ebay or craigslist. (And maybe put some glittery stickers on it or something.)

Be forewarned, though: about a quarter of the pictures my friend's kid takes are myspace style, arm out and duckfacing for the camera. Warn your children about duckface!
posted by phunniemee at 5:52 AM on October 25, 2011

Best answer: We bought the $40 Fisher-Price Kid Tough camera last year for our 3-year-old. The photo quality is pretty terrible & it goes through batteries like you wouldn't believe. I'd say it's ok if the camera is meant to be just a toy, but if you want them to be able to take decent photos, buy a real camera. We got a small digital for about $80 that she uses all the time, simply because it's MY camera & therefore I take it with us when we go places.
posted by belladonna at 7:31 AM on October 25, 2011

Another vote for the VTech Kidizoom. Very kid-friendly. Withstands a lot of abuse. I also wish it didn't have games on it, but my 4 year old still uses it primarily for taking photographs.
posted by bardophile at 9:04 AM on October 25, 2011

When my daughter was about that age she became fascinated with cameras and we got her the cheapest point-and-shoot digital we could find. She got the hang of it right away, and unlike "toddler" cameras (which were about the same price) the pictures have enough resolution to look good on a large screen or printed out. She still uses it now, 3 years later. The only real problem has been keeping her from getting fingerprints on the lens.
posted by TedW at 9:12 AM on October 25, 2011

Best answer: On following your link, that Kodak looks perfectly reasonable; we went with a cheaper no-name camera so it would be no big loss if it got destroyed but if that one had been available it would have been an attractive option.
posted by TedW at 9:16 AM on October 25, 2011

Our VTech Kidizoom stopped working after a few months. It wouldn't turn on. We waited too long to get it fixed and now it's out of warranty. I didn't like it that much anyway. The pictures didn't come out well and we found it confusing to use. I may get my kid another camera for Christmas and am thinking about getting a really cheap used adult digital camera off Craigslist and teaching him how to take care of it.
posted by chickenmagazine at 10:57 AM on October 25, 2011

Our VTech stopped working abruptly, too. Now my kids use an old iPhone (which no longer works as a phone -- I suppose it's basically a Touch) and that's much better. The screen is larger, it's easier to download any photos I want to take, and the memory doesn't fill up every ten seconds.
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:09 AM on October 25, 2011

Response by poster: Thx for the replies so far. I'm leaning on getting a cheaper point&shoot instead of the something like the Kidizoom. (I'd seen these but the reviews were soso and I like the idea of having the option of printing out some of the pics if they're good ones.)

I hadn't thought of the ipod touch...that's an idea too (though above the budget I'd intended :/)
posted by Spumante at 11:27 AM on October 25, 2011

Even a point 'n' shoot is going to be too complicated for a three-year-old unless your kid is truly exceptional (which I'm sure she is). You want something that you can hand to her and let her wander around with; it's entertaining to see the photos they return with, after they do a tour around the house and yard.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:04 PM on October 25, 2011

Best answer: 15 bucks worth of sugru will kiddify any camera. You can even cover buttons you don't want them using yet. Sugruified camera. Shipping for sugru is very cheap, buy buy!
posted by Iteki at 2:25 PM on October 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: We gave the kid the 60£ kodak for her 3rd birthday and she seems to totally get it.
posted by Spumante at 2:59 PM on November 27, 2011