Guide to the Best Kids Cameras (for ages under 10-12): The various options available for children in the age group 12 years and below. These are modeled after the adult versions but are more colorful, are more durable but less on features to make them a more reasonably-priced children’s product.
Introduction
The toy industry and everything related to kids is big business today and it is no exception when it comes to electronics as well. You have several options in kids cameras to help develop the creative aspect of your child. We all know that kids pick up things quite fast and they easily embrace newer technologies. You never know, your child might become a famous filmmaker in the future if you gift him/her a digital Kids Camera.
Though point and shoot cameras/camcorders might be getting less popular with adults (because most cellphones have that feature nowadays), in the case of children they are still hugely popular.
Most of the cameras recommended here are for younger kids (under 10 years), are brightly colored and are capable of taking photo as well as video.
When choosing a kids camera, you need to go in for something that is easy to use and durable, besides being a good learning toy. You get ones that look girly, or with aggressive sort of design (more like gaming console), these don’t break even if you drop it and you can take it in the water as well.
If you’ve a grownup kid, an action video camera could be more desirable, the video and audio quality are also comparatively very good.
Comparison Chart
- DISCOVERY KIDS Digital Camera: Captures Photos and Videos
- VTech Kidizoom Duo Selfie Camera: Take photos and videos, rear-facing camera for taking selfies.
- Fisher-Price Kid-Tough Digital Camera: Built to survive drop
- Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera with Video Recorder: Action camera (Includes 8GB Memory Card)
Best Digital Cameras & Video Cameras for Kids
Here are reviews of the bestselling kids cameras and the top camcorders available for children (age twelve and below).
In case you are planning to buy a video camera for your kids, here are few things to keep in mind:
- Ease of use is important
- Standard point-and-shoot camcorders are best
- These can take pictures as well
- Most of these shoot videos that can be watches on televisions
There are some grown-up kids who can handle most cameras well, but usually it is a good idea to leave camcorders with tons of features to adults.
You don’t want to confuse children and ideally something that lets them shoot with minimum settings, works best.
VTech Kidizoom DUO Camera
The VTech Kidizoom DUO Camera is better than the VTech Kidizoom Plus Digital Camera because the DUO lets you take selfies as well. Big buttons for easy selection, built tough, looks attractive and has kid-friendly features.
4x digital zoom, built-in auto flash, 5 built-in games. 2.4″ TFT color screen, front camera 1600 x 1200 pixels, and rear camera 640 x 480 pixels. Dimensions 6.4″ x 3.6″ x 2.3″. Movie taking, stop frame animation.
Features a Parental Controls Setting to limit the play time for the built-in games, you can also disable all games through this setting.
256 MB built-in memory (shared with program data), expandable memory with microSD / microSDHC (each sold separately) capacity from 1 GB to 32 GB.
Automatic shut-off after 3 minutes without operation in Camera or Movie modes to preserve battery life. Includes also 1 wrist strap and 1 USB cable (for file transferring and not for charging). Intended for ages 3 to 9 years. Camera operates in 4 AA batteries included for demo purposes, use new batteries for regular use.
Fisher-Price Kid-Tough Digital Camera
The Kid-Tough camera is a real digital camera with features like 1.44 TFT colored screen, Inbuilt memory to store over 2000+picures, 0.3 mega pixel imager, 4x digital zoom. You can even add special effects to the captured pictures. Its sturdy (good for children) and comes with dual-hand grips making it easy for kids to grip it; the camera comes with big-sized buttons making it easy to select the various features.
Built to survive drop, after drop, after drop. Add fun special effects with downloadable software. Available in blue and pink color.
VTech Kidizoom Action Cam
With the VTech Kidizoom Action Cam, kids can go crazy clicking pictures and videos. It is durable enough, so you don’t have to worry about any damage caused to it due to a fall or a slip etc. It comes with waterproof case for under water captures. It comes with a wrist wrap to attach it to the arm
Ideal for children of age 4-9 years
Here are the main features of VTech Kidizoom Action Cam:
- 2 mounts allows kids to attach it to their bikes or skateboards.
- Can take videos, photos, stop-motion videos and time-lapse photos. Camera includes fun photo effects, frames and filters
- Features 1.4-inch LCD screen, Connect via USB cable
- Works on rechargeable Li-ion Polymer battery
- Can take pictures and videos for 2.5 hours continuously
- Comes with a microSD card slot
Kimera Big Shot Digital Camera Assembly Kit
If you have always wondered what’s inside a Digital camera, this kit will help you do that and even let you build one from scratch. The Bigshot camera kit provides children with the opportunity to assemble their very own, fully functional digital camera. In fact, its suitable for anyone with a passion for photography, as this project gives you a complete understanding of the mechanics of a digital camera.
Bigshot, a fully functional digital camera that kids assemble themselves — learning a range of scientific concepts in the process. The camera can take regular, panoramic or 3-D digital photos and has a hand-crank that can recharge the battery. Camera manufacturers, in general, have overlooked kids by providing products that are made of cheap plastic. But this one tries to inspire kids (immediately) by providing a real camera. A future focus for Kimera may be to improve the camera’s image quality or adding other features, such as Wi-Fi.
While this is more of a point and shoot camera, it features a lens dial similar to an iPhone Holga lens kit adapter. The rotary lens includes “regular”, panorama, 3D and wide angle.
Shree Nayar, a Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University, is the bran behind this DIY camera project.
- Perfect for anyone with an appreciation for photography and the mechanics underpinning digital cameras
- Camera compatible with Windows and Mac operating systems
- Package includes all camera’s various parts (including battery), data cable, lanyard, Phillips screwdriver, 3D glasses, and English instruction book
More Kids Cameras
Fisher-Price Kid-Tough See Yourself Camera
The Fisher-Price Kid-Tough See Yourself Camera comes with a 180-degree swiveling lens to capture images and video, and also has special built-in effects that you can apply to the captured images. The downloadable software lets you share the pictures with family and friends! Its sturdy and comes with 4X digital zoom, 1.8 TFT colored screen, 256 MB memory, SD slot and more.
VTech Kidizoom FFP Camera
The Kidizoom is a 1.3 megapixel kids’ camera and comes with a 4x digital zoom. It has a 1.8″ color screen and easy-to-use viewfinder. Your child can even apply special built-in photo effects to the captured digital pictures, and can also record video movies with sound. The pink color will appeal to most girls. Its a great camera to let your your child’s creativity come alive.
Digital Filmmaking for Kids For Dummies
Digital Filmmaking for Kids For Dummies Review (Book by By Nick Willoughby)
Written for kids aged 7–16 years with an interest in film-making (creating and sharing your self-made videos), this is a great book to get started with digital filmmaking. This book will teach children how to make their very own digital films by sharing over twenty step-by-step projects (designed to teach the basics of creating videos that are perfect for sharing online.) This book is a fun and easy way for kids to learn new skills on their own (perhaps with a little help from friends, family, and teachers)
Kids will learn to create a film using the tools at hand; plan, light and shoot videos; edit and share the film; learn different types of camera shots and angles to use in the films; build new skills such as writing a script, and creating a storyboard
This fun and friendly guide will walk kids through cool projects and will introduce them to all stages of filmmaking. Packed with full-color photos, easy-to-follow instruction, and simple examples, it shows you how to write a script, create a storyboard, pick a set, light a scene, master top-quality sound, frame and shoot, edit, add special effects, and share your finished product with friends or a global audience.
- Pros: The book is pretty thorough, Several fun projects to try out and use as a starting point for your film-making career. Wide assortment of topics (several diagrams) provides good understanding of the basics.
- Cons: Most examples based on iMovie (which means owning an iMac), should have had more options for kids
Anyone can take a selfie or upload a silly video to YouTube—but it takes practice and skill to shoot professional-looking frames and make your own short film. Written by a film and video professional who has taught hundreds of students, this kid-accessible guide provides you with hands-on projects that make it fun to learn all aspects of video production, from planning to scripting to filming to editing. Plus, it includes access to videos that highlight and demonstrate skills covered in the book, making learning even easier and less intimidating to grasp.
Digital Cameras for Kids: Buying Guide
We all know that children are very receptive to learning at a young age, and toys can help a major role in developing not just their motor skills but also learning and creative skills.
No wonder, toys are not just for fun nowadays. They all have some element of learning associated with them. And the same goes to kids cameras as well.
Kids love posing in front of cameras, and also taking pictures and videos. The only problem is that you cannot hand them your expensive camera. Because they are always on the way, they are prone to dropping it. So it doesn’t make sense to hand them your DSLR camera.
Cameras for kids are not only designed to be tough and durable, they are also very easy to use, and more importantly they are fairly cheap.
So if it’s your child’s birthday, or Christmas, or some festive occasion, this could be an apt gift for your little one.
Kids are quick to embrace technology, and with the digital cameras for kids, you never know…you might have the next Spielberg right at your home.
Cameras for Kids – Factors to Consider
When selecting the best digital camera for your kid, you must consider the following factors:
- The age of your child
- If your kid has used a digital camera earlier or not
- Whether he or she is really interested in photography
- Whether he or she would be able to use the camera
You must keep in mind that most kids of today are not at all careful about their things. So just do not waste too much money on buying your kid an expensive digital camera.
Perfect for Family Gatherings
Most of these products have the capability to take videos, as well as still pictures. So the next time you have folks coming over to your place, get your little one to show off his/her creative skills by letting them take pictures and videos.
These cameras have the ability to shoot video of adequate quality, and can be uploaded to the internet as well. Children are also smart at figuring out how to use these cameras with the computer, in case you have to upload the video on the internet. Even otherwise, the instructions are provided and quite easy to follow.
Just take the videos on your computer, apply some effects using a free video editor to make it look more jazzy, and then you are ready to upload the video on your family site, or on youtube and share it with friends and family on Facebook.
Need to be Durable
The importance of this point cannot be stressed more. You need a product that will work in spite of being dropped several times. The camera will keep on getting dropped, tossed around many times, but it should not harm it a bit. It should still continue to take pics and videos.
Fortunately, the manufacturers are aware of this fact and design their camera keeping this factor in mind. No matter how many times you drop it, these video cameras will not break.
Need to be Easy to Use
This depends on how old your child is. This is because the younger kids need something that has fewer buttons, so that they can see the results instantly. Older kids, on the other hand, are capable of figuring out lot of things on their own, especially when it comes to digital gadgets.
Most cameras for kids however are quite easy to use. It has an on/off button, delete, play/pause, scroll, and record button. That’s all you need anyways. Most kids are able to easily operate these even without reading the instruction manual, so that is a big plus.
Needs Well Lit Surroundings
Kids love to take their cameras wherever they go and enjoy recording almost everything that they see. However, the problem is that at times it may be difficult to see anything on the camera, especially if the surrounding is not well-lit.
This is to make you aware that the picture quality can be pretty rough, especially if the room is not well-lit. It is seen that the pictures come too dark if there is not sufficient light in the room.
If you want the pictures and the videos to come out really well, ensure that the room is well. If that factor is taken care of, the kids can really have fun with this product and actually get good videos out of it.
So let your kids walk around and film the family; not only is it fun but it also encourages creative development in your kids.
These are Not Professional Cameras
Kids for cameras are meant for fun, so it will definitely not give you the results that you see from a DSLR camera. For the price you pay, you should not even expect that.
Some also feel that the memory card is of smaller capacity and that it runs out of memory very fast. However that is something that almost all camera users face. The solution is either to use a bigger memory card or to frequently copy your content to a computer.
There are many who feel that they’d rather get a cheap starter camera for adults. The problem with that is that you are going to spend at least 3X the price.
Kids Cameras also come with many useful features.
You can shoot in the front and also of your own. The part that captures the video / pictures can be made to focus at the front to shoot others. It can also be turned to focus on the person who is holding the camera. So you can basically take picture or even take videos of your own self.
Once you have the pictures, most kids cameras allow you to apply different kinds of funny effects to the pictures, to make it more enticing to children.
Even though these are toys, they are very creative and relatively high-tech toys, and your kids are really going to feel that they have something that is more like an “adult” stuff. So if you have a kid in the 3 – 8 year old range, then this is something that will really help to develop their creativity.
More Factors to Look For
Ease of use is important but if your child indeed loves photography he/she might want better features in the camera.
So what features should you look for?
Most cameras more or less have similar features.
Things like ability to zoom in/out, use flash, playback capability, click using timer, camcorder mode, games that enhance photography skills are good to have.
Also look for photo editing software and ability to connect to your computer so that you could also use it as a web cam.
Things to Remember?
Almost all of these models are made of materials that make them unbreakable, and are also water-resistant to some extent. Here are a couple of more things to remember:
Since these are for children, the quality of the video recorded or the photos captured may not look good in low-light conditions. so you need to ensure there’s sufficient lighting.
Some children just click the various buttons on the camcorder in quick succession, which could lock the camera (happens only sometimes). The best option is to remove the batteries and put them back (you need to restart it).
Here’s a video demonstrating a Kids Video Camera
What Camera to Buy?
There are so many different kinds of cameras for kids that are easily available today, and are definitely bound to hone a child’s interest in photography. It is no longer like the past, when it was tough to get a good camera and even if you had one, it was difficult to operate.
It is very easy to record video as well with the digital cameras nowadays.
There are many brands of kids digital cameras available today. These are available in different flashy colors to entice young children.
These are quite durable as well, so you need not worry about repeated drops. But do not be tempted to buy the cheapest one out there as you don’t want something that stops working after just a couple of months.
Just buy one of those entry level digital cameras that are not expensive.
Though inexpensive, they will still keep your child engrossed and even teach him or her about photography.
Most kids cameras come with LCD screen for easy viewing; some can also be connected to a television or a computer. Plus, the camera also has many inbuilt games and it can also be used to watch movies.
Cameras are great for preserving their memories via photographs. You get cameras that are weather resistant, and some even come with advanced features such as image editing feature, motion sensor time lapse mode.
Most of these products give you the ability to take videos as well as still photos, but not all of them have that feature. So you should check on that feature – ability to take videos as well as still pictures
Some of these kids cameras can easily produce up to 15 min of videos, so your kids get to learn about important video productions skills such as video capture, which allows you to easily transfer the files to your computer, and also edit them.
Top brands of cameras
VTech: An extremely popular brand, their Kidizoom camera series in particular is doing really well. This range includes high quality cameras with lots of child friendly features, such as simple controls, easy to use editors and waterproof covers.
Fisher Price: Makes tough digital cameras for 3 to 6 years olds, designed to withstand drop after drop. These digi-cams have lots of features and are compatible with both windows and mac.
Drograce: Their cameras seem to have similar design to those from Vtech, but the overall quality and reliability of these kids digital cameras is great. Drograce specializes in making cool action cams for kids who like to live on the wild side.
Playskool: Playskool Showcam range are designed with simple, big controls which makes it easier for younger kids to operate the camera. The cameras come with built-in editing programs (no need to connect to a PC or Mac).
PowPro Upcoming brand that makes some brilliant cameras for preschool kids and for older children. Nice functional features and retro designs and colors.
Funtoyworld is a family-managed website with me (Ben), and my wife doing most of the work. We are proud parents of two wonderful kids and love reviewing toys. We have a firm but friendly “democratic parenting” style and offer several practical suggestions backed by extensive research. Our own experience with raising two children prompted us to share our knowledge. Read more.
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