VTech Kidizoom Camera

Product: Kidizoom Camera
Company: VTech
Website: www.vtechkids.com
Recommended Age Range: 2 to 6 years
Price Range: $32-$40
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Comments: I bought this for my son for his 4th birthday based on how much he likes using my own point and shoot, and while my son LOVES it, I was pretty disappointed. However, my husband was not really comfortable with him using my $200 camera and we bought this one for only $35. I’m not impressed by the quality of photos it takes, but my son doesn’t seem to mind in the slightest. He’s been playing photographer for 2 days straight. It does make a very satisfying “camera click” noise when it takes a picture and it has some really fun features on it like backgrounds and frames that are not available on my adult cameras. Also, it’s very easy to use. There is a menu that I can navigate to see all the options, but pretty much everything can be accessed in some way without the menu and the newly 4 year old figured out within a few minutes how to take and review pictures on his own. My main complaint is that with modest indoor lighting, the pictures frequently come out really blurry unless the subject is very still, but really I’m just spoiled by my DSLR with external flash and am also unsatisfied with my $200 point and shoot. One great thing about this camera for kids is that, unlike my point and shoot, my son does not need to hold the shutter button down halfway before pressing it all the way. This is really helpful, because although I tried explaining it to him, he has a lot of trouble with that concept when using my camera. Overall, seeing my son’s joy at using “his own camera”, I’m really happy with this purchase and there’s plenty of time later to upgrade when he’s older and more responsible.

Update: I’ve removed this from the best gifts for 3 year olds list, mainly because of how little it gets used. It frequently gets attention every time a new kid comes to play at our house, but it doesn’t get much repeat use. If you have a kid that is obsessed with taking pictures and not critical of the quality of the pictures, it’s not a bad “toy” investment, but the pictures are so awful, that it’s not great for teaching older kids how to use a camera. I think I’ll wait a couple more years, then maybe get my son an inexpensive real camera when he’s 7 or 8.

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