Need Advice on Starter Camera for Kids.

Walmarts has some nice digital camera's (some can be used as web cams) they come with cable to hook to computer to download the picutes. The big seller part of these are they run less than $50 some as low as $20. I had one it was a viva an it took great pictures.The cheaper ones do not have the screen to view as you take the pictures, just have to wait till you download them to see how they came out or even what the picture was taken of. I hope this helps some with your hunt for camera's.

1 mom found this helpful

IS it possible to found a good one at a pawn shop that someone did not pick up or look in the paper for a good use one.

KODAK Easy-share cameras are BY FAR the best for kids. They are sooo easy. You can easily delete pictures which is great. Both of our kids have these cameras (different series # on both) but are equally great. I have a more expensive digital camera and honestly like their better. Both of theirs were on sale for less than $100!

Whatever you do, don't buy the Crayola camera! My daughter took this to Disney World and couldn't get a single good shot. The screen and the pictures are really low resolution. We're giving ours away and just buying her something else (so I'll be watching the responses here, too). Good luck!

I bought two used Sony Cyber-shots on eBay; both came with cases and memory sticks. I think I paid $50 for one and $40 for the other...I know it was under $100 total. My husband and I both have Sonys (for many years) and wanted to be able to interchange memory sticks. We've been very happy with the brand. My kids didn't care that they weren't new...I think they appreciated that they could use them immediately! :)

I bought my daughter a digital camera for her 5th birthday this year. It is the disney pix one and I got it for $35. It takes good pictures and is easy for her to use. She loved seeing her pics right away on the screen and the good feature is that after 60 seconds of non-use, it automatically shuts off. Gotta love the battery saver idea.

Also, the software allows you to put disney characters into your pics too. I bought this one because we plan to go to WDW next year.

My six yr old is actually pretty good at using ours, so we went to Big Lots and found a simple but good resolution camera for under $50. It' easy for him to use, but still has enough resolution that he can enjoy the pictures. Just be sure to get an adjustable strap that will keep it on their arm!

How old are your daughters? I love taking pictures, and my little one likes to see them, already, and he's only 9 months old, so I know pretty soon I'll be thinking about a camera for him. But, IMHO I don't think little kids should be given something like an expensive digital camera when they are so easy to break. I drop mine all the time and I'm surprised I haven't broken it myself, much less trust it with a child. (I'm really clumsy sometimes, though!)

I know this may sound old school, but have you considered getting them the disposable fun cameras instead? They don't cost that much and some of the best pictures I've ever seen have been taken on those. I know they won't get immediate gradification, but you could turn it into something fun... I sometimes miss the wait for pictures to be developed, even if it was an hour, you know, the mystery of what they look like is part of the enjoyment of taking photos.

Just my opinion though.

Look in the latest Avon Christmas catalog. There is a digital camera in there for cheap and it looks good in quality.

A few years back, Walgreens had some pretty decent Polaroid digital cameras on sale the day after Thanksgiving for about $40 and we got one for my daughter- it was one of the few times I went shopping the day after Thanksgiving. It wasn't a great camera, but it was a good starter camera - not too complicated, easy to operate, easy to download pictures, and stood up to being carried around in her purse.
I don't know if they'll have them again, but you might chrck the Black Friday sales at Walgreens or other drugstores for it. If you go to an electronics shop, you're going to pay through the nose.

No help, just a note to say that I found this frutrating too. They make very babyish cameras (toddler proof). Then it seems to jump to $150 cameras with 8 megapixels. I know my kids would be happy with 2 or 3 megapixels (it wasn't very long ago that was the best camera on the market). I would think you should be able to find a decent camera for $30 or $40, so the issue isn't so huge if they lose/break it. But i haven't found one I like either.

have you looked at the Little Tikes Tough Kid camera? It is supposed to be really good quality and can take a beating. I think it is only like $50 or $60 which seems like alot, but really isn't in comparison to most Digital Camera's. I think it also records video.

Another thing you could think about is buying a display model. My hubby and i wanted digital camera's to take pictures of the boys, but we didn't want to pay a whole bunch, but also didn't want to miss out on quality, so we asked for help from someone in the photo department of Wal*Mart and she let us in on a secret. Behind the counter they have the displays of last years models that have been checked and still work great, they have just been handled by people. They still come with all the packaging and everything that would come if you bought one of those $200 camera's, but we payed $60 for his and $40 for mine instead of $120 for his and $100 for mine.

You don't say how old your girls are. I bought my 6yo the KidTough camera last year, he has really had a lot of fun with it. The pictures are not very high quality, but the camera holds up to dropping, etc. I bought extra memory for the camera so he can take lots of pictures. He thinks it's a cool camera!

We bought the V-tech one for my 6-year-old. It has frames to put on the pictures, and it also has games on it. My daughter absolutely loved it. Of course it broke a few months later. I was furious at first, but after reading a bunch of reviews with other kid cameras, I realized that almost all of them had at least one review of someone's breaking (bad batches, I guess). So I did what I NEVER would do and I bought another one (yes, I know... I'm crazy!). My daughter loved the V-tech one so much and she already knew how to use it that I bought the same exact one, but this time I bought the warranty. Now if it breaks, they will give me a new one for free. So basically my advice is that no matter which one you chose, spend the extra $8-$10 to get the warranty (even if it isn't a 'kids' camera). Oh, and also explain to your child about the delete button. My daughter accidentally deleted all of her pics of her friends at a special event. She was devastated and I felt awful for not explaining to her about deleting pictures. Anyway, good luck on your search!