November 2007 Archives
I decided to buy a Digital Camera for my two boys this Christmas, but had a hard time figuring out which one to get. I didn't want to pay much more than 50.00 and I wanted the picture taking to be fun, easy and the pictures to be decent enough to put on the internet. I ended up buying three different cameras and I thought I better review them so other people don't have to go to the same trouble.
Little Tikes My Real Digital Camera
Pros:
Cons:
Paid 19.98 at a before Christmas sale. Regular price 39.99
Conclusion:
Good if you just want a TOY camera that happens to take real pictures. I would recommend this camera for young children 18 months-3 years at the most. If your child cares at all about the picture quality this is not the camera for you.
Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera
Pros:
Cons:
Paid 59.99 but camera came with a 128 MB SD card
Conclusion:
A little pricey for a toy camera that only takes semi-decent pictures, but your kids will probably LOVE it. I hope Fisher Price keeps working on this because it is a great idea, but there is definitely room for improvement. I would recommend this camera for ages 2-6. Older children might like it too, but I think there are better choices out there for kids with more maturity and coordination.
Vtech Kidizoom Digital Camera
Pros:
Cons:
Paid 49.99 and included a camera case
Conclusion:
This camera seems to be aimed at a slightly older crowd, which is kind of odd because the games are much too simple for an older child to really enjoy. There is definitely a learning curve for all of the features. You will probably have to show your child what to do several times before he or she could use the camera by themselves. But there is also a huge FUN factor in this camera. It has a built in photo editor that allows you to distort and embellish all your photos. The video recording feature is also great even if the videos are virtually unwatchable. I would recommend this camera for children ages 4-8.
Ultimate Conclusion:
The Little Tikes camera was just not right for my family. I wanted something my 4 year old could use and be proud of the photos he'd taken. The pictures were so blurry that you couldn't tell what they were sometimes and that was with an adult taking them. I would only recommend this camera to families with very young children who get more joy out of actually taking the picture than in viewing the results.
The Vtech camera would have been my dream camera if only it took slightly better photos. It was a harder camera to use initially, but my son learns very quickly and I'm sure he wouldn't have needed too much instruction before he could do everything himself. The video recording feature is a big draw for this camera as well. If you are looking for a camera that is a little bit more than just a plain old camera this might be the right one for you, especially if your child is older. Picture quality was really the main drawback on this one and even then, if you aren't expecting much it might be just fine.
The Fisher Price camera was the best camera of the lot. The pictures were much clearer than both of the other cameras. It seems very sturdy, the viewfinder and the lens synced up the best of the three and it was the easiest camera to use. If you are looking for a solid kid-friendly camera with no whistles or bells then the Fisher Price camera wins hands down.
Here are three pictures taken in the same light with each different camera. I thought this would be a good comparison test! These are all taken with the flash on.
Fisher Price Camera:
Vtech Camera:
Little Tikes Camera:
Little Tikes My Real Digital Camera
Pros:
- Price. This was the cheapest of the three cameras
- Lighter Weight
- Neck Strap
- Stores lots of pictures in its internal memory
- Easy to download pictures
- Three Flash modes
- Easy to use and mostly straight-forward buttons although the flash, power and trash button are all green and the trash and power buttons look exactly the same aside from the icons to the side of them.
- Better for kids with small hands
Cons:
- Severe lag time between button push and picture taking
- Lens angle is very narrow
- Even with a steady hand pictures turn out blurry
- Flash is ultra bright
- Batteries are hard to change (must have a small phillips head screwdriver)
- I Kept pushing scroll buttons with my thumb while trying to take a picture (May not be an issue for smaller hands)
- No sounds to indicate a picture has been taken aside from a tiny beep that occurs twice, once when you push the shutter button and once when the actual picture which usually 12takes a good half to full second after the button is pushed
- View finder and lens don't sync up very well
- Large numbers on LCD screen make it hard to view images
- No extra memory space
Paid 19.98 at a before Christmas sale. Regular price 39.99
Conclusion:
Good if you just want a TOY camera that happens to take real pictures. I would recommend this camera for young children 18 months-3 years at the most. If your child cares at all about the picture quality this is not the camera for you.
Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera
Pros:
- Took the best pictures compared to both of the other cameras (slightly grainy but not so blurry)
- Funs sounds when taking pictures
- No noticeable lag time between pushing button and actual picture taking
- Can take pictures quite quickly if flash is not needed
- View finder and lens seem to be lined up pretty closely
- Buttons are easy to use and all different colors
- Large textured grips make it easy to hold on to
- Has a lithium battery backup so pictures don't get lost if your batteries run out
- Can use with an SD card for extra memory. (A must for this camera in my opinion)
- Can do 1.3 interpolated MPs, but I'm not sure this is such a great feature. It mostly made the pictures bigger but more out of focus. (Which this kind of camera doesn't need any help with.)
Cons:
- Have to be very patient to get the flash to go off. They need a sound or something to let you know when it's ready to go.
- Flash is quite bright especially if taking an up close picture, it will wash everything out.
- No neck strap, This camera is really too heavy for a child to wear on his or her wrist.
- Price point is ok, but still high for the quality of pictures and the fact that you need to purchase a separate SD card to get any real use out the camera
Paid 59.99 but camera came with a 128 MB SD card
Conclusion:
A little pricey for a toy camera that only takes semi-decent pictures, but your kids will probably LOVE it. I hope Fisher Price keeps working on this because it is a great idea, but there is definitely room for improvement. I would recommend this camera for ages 2-6. Older children might like it too, but I think there are better choices out there for kids with more maturity and coordination.
Vtech Kidizoom Digital Camera
Pros:
- Super fun features for the kids to play with in addition to taking pictures.
- Takes videos
- Three flash modes
- Has three built-in games
- Can use an SD card for more memory
- Good sounds for different camera actions
- Pictures are ok, but very much like an older camera phone. They are very grainy compared to both the Fisher Price and the Little Tikes camera.
Cons:
- Buttons are not very intuitive. Has large arrow buttons for the volume that should have been used for scrolling through pictures in my opinion. You really have to read the instruction manual to find out how do do different things with the camera. I'm not sure a young child could operate most of the features of this camera without help from a grown-up (at least until he or she memorizes what to do).
- View finders do not match up with what the camera actually sees. If your child uses the viewfinders to take pictures you might end up with a lot of chin and chest photos instead of faces.
- The games on the camera are very simple and will probably not appeal to kids older than 4 years old.
- Flash is ultra bright and washes things out.
- Downloads to the computer as a folder that you must then copy onto your computer. Not as streamlined as the plug and download feature of the other two cameras. Although some people may prefer this method.
- Must have phillips head screw driver handy to change the batteries, but it's not nearly as tricky to do as with the Little Tikes camera.
Paid 49.99 and included a camera case
Conclusion:
This camera seems to be aimed at a slightly older crowd, which is kind of odd because the games are much too simple for an older child to really enjoy. There is definitely a learning curve for all of the features. You will probably have to show your child what to do several times before he or she could use the camera by themselves. But there is also a huge FUN factor in this camera. It has a built in photo editor that allows you to distort and embellish all your photos. The video recording feature is also great even if the videos are virtually unwatchable. I would recommend this camera for children ages 4-8.
Ultimate Conclusion:
The Little Tikes camera was just not right for my family. I wanted something my 4 year old could use and be proud of the photos he'd taken. The pictures were so blurry that you couldn't tell what they were sometimes and that was with an adult taking them. I would only recommend this camera to families with very young children who get more joy out of actually taking the picture than in viewing the results.
The Vtech camera would have been my dream camera if only it took slightly better photos. It was a harder camera to use initially, but my son learns very quickly and I'm sure he wouldn't have needed too much instruction before he could do everything himself. The video recording feature is a big draw for this camera as well. If you are looking for a camera that is a little bit more than just a plain old camera this might be the right one for you, especially if your child is older. Picture quality was really the main drawback on this one and even then, if you aren't expecting much it might be just fine.
The Fisher Price camera was the best camera of the lot. The pictures were much clearer than both of the other cameras. It seems very sturdy, the viewfinder and the lens synced up the best of the three and it was the easiest camera to use. If you are looking for a solid kid-friendly camera with no whistles or bells then the Fisher Price camera wins hands down.
Here are three pictures taken in the same light with each different camera. I thought this would be a good comparison test! These are all taken with the flash on.
Fisher Price Camera:
Vtech Camera:
Little Tikes Camera:
