Kids Digital Camera (Cheap)

[iam:Caine]

Hey, initial post here. Does anyone know of a cheap kids camera that is compatible, or maybe even an easy work around. I'm looking to spend about $25.

[ChrisA]

Hey, initial post here. Does anyone know of a cheap kids camera that is compatible, or maybe even an easy work around. I'm looking to spend about $25.

My daugher has a "Hello Kitty" pink plastic camera that we paid maybe $30 for. Quality is about like a web cam.

Now she has a cell phone. The phone cost about $25 and it is a pre-paid accont so there is no monthly service charge. So technically the cellphone, with it's camera is an nder $25 camera.

I've found a number of "key chain" digital cameras. None of them have LCD screens, they don't accept memory cards but have internal memory to hold maybe 50 pictures. expect webcam resoluton.

The other option is to just buy a "real" camera off eBay for $25. You will likely get some 4MP camera from a second tier brand.

My daughter has done some good work with the toy camera. It reminds me of the people shooting Holgas. I look at her work and help her put the image into iPhoto and I can't help but notice that people who are three feet tall see the world differently

[iRachel]

How old is the kid in question? If they're a pre-schooler, Fisher Price makes a decent digital camera (I don't have kids myself, but this is what my friend tells me, she has two preschoolers, and they haven't managed to break it yet).

If the kid is much older than seven or eight and is fairly responsible, you're probably better taking ChrisA's advice and getting a "regular" camera second hand, either off eBay or perhaps at a local camera shop or second-hand retailer, and let him/her experiment with that.

[seany916]

NOT recommendations, but just options:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=6528322

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=6528322

but if you read the reviews... you get what you pay for

any old used digital camera from Canon or NIkon would be great.

My 9 year old "owns" our old Canon S400 & Elura 100 for photos & video. She will "inherit" the D70s in 2 months. If you teach them how to care for electronics, everything transfers from one device to the next.

[dllavaneras]

I've seen a few of the older cams, like the Canon A410 go for under $40 on eBay. 3.2 Mp is more than enough if your kid ever want to print the pics, and the quality is pretty good. Not a fast camera, or one with a lot of options and modes, but I think it's worth looking into. :)

[iam:Caine]

Thanks for the suggestions and guidance. It is for my daughter who is going on 9, and has been taking pictures of my wife and I for at least 4 years now. She comes out with some interesting compositions. All of this came up yesterday when she was at Target w/my wife and they found some $17 camera. I thought it at least would show up as a drive and I could pull the pics off that way, but no such luck. I give the suggestions a shot. Thanks.

[seany916]

If you have an old digital P&S, that would be great. At this age, if you start teaching her about the manual setting on a dSLR, you'd be surprised how much she will absorb.

[skybolt]

One thing to make sure of -- whatever you buy needs to have a card of some type for photo storage. I bought my grandsons each a $19 digital a couple of years ago for Christmas. They took some pics, and when they went to download, the battery went dead and the photos were lost. If it has some kind of external storage this will not happen. Digitals eat batteries like mad. Also, if you get one with external storage, anything will be compatible with a mac by using a card reader.

[KristineL]

Hey - I'm new at all this - what is a card reader? I'm not a technological genius and I need something that I can at least figure out how to use and download for my 6 yr old. Bought 2 camera's today for her B'day and neither worked on my OS X 10.3.9 Can someone explain to me in simple terms what I need to purchase??
Thanks in advance

[termina3]

Hey - I'm new at all this - what is a card reader? I'm not a technological genius and I need something that I can at least figure out how to use and download for my 6 yr old. Bought 2 camera's today for her B'day and neither worked on my OS X 10.3.9 Can someone explain to me in simple terms what I need to purchase??
Thanks in advance

a) this is a topic for a new thread…no biggie though

to answer your actual question… excuse the kindergarten language:

Digital cameras write their images to memory, most of the time in the form of some sort of "card" or "stick." A card reader is simply something that plugs into your computer, which you in turn put a camera card/stick into, producing a connection between the camera card and your computer.

Most cameras come with a cable to connect the camera directly to the computer, making a card reader (for the casual user) unnecessary. Could you specify what model cameras you're using (make and model, e.g. Sony Cybershot 3)?

[KristineL]

Hey! First camera is a Disney pix click 16MB, VGA 640x480 holds 200 photos. No memory stick. The directions specifically say I must install the Disney Pix software in order to download the images to my computer. But now that I'm writing this I'm wondering if that is creative software for borders etc.
Second is a Trekker Digital by global point. Don't like this one at all even if it did work!She's only 6, but loves playing with our Sony. Which makes me nervous!
Thanks for helping me -
Kristine