camera recommendations for child

<p>I'm looking to purchase a camera for a 5 year old. He has great interest in cameras and has expressed interest in having his own. Obviously, I need something basic and simple. A long zoom range, great image quality and various bills & whistles are among items that are not priorities. Does anyone have any suggestions of a simple little point & shoot for a kid? Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>I haven't been camera shopping in a while, but dpreview.com has good tools for sorting through all of them and doing comparisons. A couple of things I would look for if buying for a budding photographer:</p>

<p>- Image stabilization, to keep disappointment from blurry shots to a minimum<br>

- Ability to use standard (AA) batteries so that when the camera goes into a drawer for a couple of months it can be used again without having to wait for a Li-Ion battery to charge up</p>

<p>My granddaughter (7) uses a kiddie's tablet for her shots.</p>

<p>Our families new "carry everywhere" camera was purchased with our kids (nearly 3 and nearly 7 years-old) very much in mind: an Olympus TG-820. This is a ruggedized camera that can survive drops, water, snow, dirt, sand, and being stepped on. They both love using it and we don't have to worry about it when they do. </p>

<p>There are a variety of models out there, and you can easily find previous generations of ruggedized models for little money. All manufacturers have a rugged model line. </p>

+1 for Rob.

 

My kids have been using a Canon SD10 for 2 years now. Canon, Olympus, Pentax, etc. all have shock- and water-proof

cameras.

<p>Some time ago, I looked for a camera for my under 3 years old. I ended up getting an inexpensive Vivitar from Target (the kid cameras were more expensive and huge to boot - they looked like the result of breeding a camera with a crate). So, basically, I would recommend getting the least expensive camera that fits your requirements. Try a waterproof one - it will be hard to damage and he can take photos that he wouldn't be able to take with a fragile camera.</p>

<p>+2 on Rob's comment. There are some nice rugged P&S's available for a small $$$ outlay.</p>

<p>Refurbished iPod touches (8gb) are $149 from Apple. It's a device they can use to take pictures with any number of applications, but also edit or take movies (and edit those). Just get any half decent case for it and it will be really hard to break, there are also a number of totally waterproof cases. Kids can work touch screens pretty naturally so controls will not frustrate them the way other dedicated P&S cameras might. If you buy used, just make sure you get 4th gen or newer.</p>

<p>The flexibility to use many different apps to take pictures makes it so much more versitile than any other P&S camera.</p>