Cameras For Kids

Which camera is right for your child, who wants a camera like yours?
Choosing a camera for your kids can be easy, if you know what to expect.

First, you need to define your budget, just like when buying a camera for yourself. The amount of money you intend to spend could be effected by the likelihood of the camera to be destroyed after a rather short period of time.

If you believe it will not survive long, you have two options:

The first option is buying a very inexpensive camera, so that you won't mind you child bashing it on the ground or drowning it in the bathtub (there are worse cases than that):

Vtech Kidizoom camera - orange, $35
Vtech Kidizoom camera - pink, $38

If your kid is less likely to treat the camera as a toy, you could consider an ordinary low-cost camera, some of which have become truly valid options with decent image quality in recent years:

Nikon Coolpix L24 - $89

Canon PowerShot A800 - $79

The second option is buying a more expensive camera, but one that would withstand any deliberate or indeliberate offensive action taken by your child. Those are rugged, shock-proof (most for 3 ft. drops) and water-proof (up to 10 ft.) cameras. Some good examples are:

Kodak EasyShare Sport - water-proof to 10 ft. (but not shock-proof) - $63

Olympus TG-310 - shock-proof of up to 5 ft. drops
and water-proof for up to 10 ft. dives - $149

For the young adults (let's say, between 8 and 12), you probably wouldn't get away with buying an affordable camera. You would be required to fulfill the need for coolness, to mark a gadget check-list and in general to invest much more money in order to get an: "Oh, yeah!".

In that case, you would need to spend anywhere between $139 and $199, depending on the length of that check-list:

Panasonic Lumix DMC FH25 - x8 zoom, face recognition, preset scenes, etc. - $139

Canon PowerShot SX130 - x12 zoom, face, smile & wink recognition,
color filters, fish-eye and miniature effects - $199

In any case, if your child enjoys receiving a camera, consider yourself lucky but also remember - as they get older, and understand more (that happens so quickly), they demand better, more sophisticated and more expensive toys, as do I.

-eyalg