Roundup: Digital Cameras for Kids

Mine uses an Olympus e-410 DSLR with kit zoom : just the right size with a good shutter-button position and great Jpegs.

"If they’re young enough, your kids may have only ever known a world in which smartphones are the most-popular devices for taking photos. That’s too bad."

Frankly, if it's bad for kids, it's even worse for adults! The axiom about the best camera you have, etc. is malarkey. If I am in a situation where I'd want to have my best camera to photograph something and all I have with me is a smartphone I don't take the picture.

A submersible, drop-resistant smart phone is probably the only "camera" a typical kid would want or need. If nothing else, a smart phone can be used for gaming, which an old man's camera cannot.

Anything else would probably soon be lost, broken, soaked, swiped, swapped for other goodies, or (most likely) spend most of its time on a shelf. Any supposed advantage of a traditional mono-use "brick" camera, in terms of image quality, is irrelevant if most photos are casual shots of friends seen on a 3" screen, and merit 2 seconds of attention, at most.

There may be exceptions. Maybe, somewhere, there is a 15 year-old who dreams of getting a DSLR or an Oldsmobile station wagon for the next birthday.

Me, the owner of a "pile" of Canon equipment, I had no choice but to buy a Nikon for my daughter. Why? Because "wow daddy, it is PINK (PINK!!!) and I can play with it UNDER WATER...". And that was it. Canon has no PINK underwater camera, so an easy win for the (almost unbreakable) little Nikon (the IQ had/has zero relevance). Happy ending for everyone. Cheers! :)

I wish this round-up had been published before I bought my 3yo the Hasselblad Lunar....!

A year and a half ago I bought a 5 year old and a 7 year old Nikon s3100 cameras for a week visit to Disney World. They each had some experience with my super zoom but no real training. The cameras had neck straps (a must!). They had fun taking pictures but were not terribly interested in the results. Each night I downloaded the pictures to my computer and looked at the pictures. They were more interested in watching TV. I think you should buy a kid a camera just to see what they find interesting in the world. Six months later at a gift shop the 5 year old (girl) took a picture of every shelf of Vera Bradley gear. They had fun taking pictures of each other, often posing, and holding the camera at arms length to take their own picture making faces. I took the 7 year old on a old barn shoot and liked some of his pictures better than mine. Give them an adequate camera and stand back, its very entertaining.

Soon, kids will be BORN with a camera in their forehead and a cell in each multithumbed hands. What a lovely sight for the proud parents.

I give my old cameras to my kids, but it seems that no matter what . . . they always want the camera I'm holding. <grin> Nice pict! And great article! :)

I have always disliked all the "what type of camera should I buy my 4 year old?" threads on the DPR. Let kids be kids. If you insist on giving them one I would suggest an RX1. My 3 year old great grandson takes amazing shots with our old Leica X1. His 18 month old sister does better with the old F31fd.

Don't underestimate the ability if today's kids to adsorb and master complicated things. My two 9 year olds constantly surprise me in their ability to quickly become proficient with electronic gadgets of any sort.

Heck, one of my girls frequently asks for my D800 (with 50/1.8G or 50/1.2 AIS attached) and takes very respectable images (of course under strict supervision) - the only issue is that it's too big/heavy for her hands.

I've been thinking of getting her a used Panasonic G3 and kit lens for a few hundred $$ - it's small, light, has a viewfinder (I find it's tough for kids my girls age to hand-hold a point and shoot very well), and takes very decent video.

She currently has a Nikon S30 which is fine, except the image quality sucks and she can clearly see that.

This list is a good start, but there are plenty more kid-friendly cameras out there for sure and even used last generation m43 cameras can be a great camera for a kid that is proficient with electronic stuff.

This is a charming and really useful article, I am SO happy to see this subject addressed. An excellent cut of cameras for the various age groups, of course one can expect variations in the degree of care any child can exercise.

Well done... THANKS!!!

I gave the D300 to my son (9 years) with a 35mm F/2D.
But lately he is complaining, the images do not look as good as on his smartphone (he means by that the filters of iInstagram)

Instagram is really great marketing...how to give images out of inferior phone camera's an even more inferior look and then sell it as "It's a new way to see the world"

When I was a child and film was still the main recording medium, I used a Pentax 645.

I think most parents simply insult their children buying them pathetic DSLRs or worse still P&S of any variety.

I got my 5 months old son a Phaseone IQ2 180. I gaffer-taped it to his milk bottle and simply leave it in his pram next to him. Let me tell you, some of his shots are gallery ready.

Would put Henri to shame.

Hands in the shape of a viewfinder and a sprinkle of imagination, the perfect first camera!!

I got started with my mom's Canon A1 & F1 and a set of lenses, flashguns, etc. when I was about 9 or 10 ... learned about aperture, shutter speeds, different films, etc...
I really don't see why these days anythings needs to be a kids-special-dumbed-down version.

But...

but...

We are ALL kids!

*sigh*

.

Obviously a Nikon D4 and a Leica M9

So, letting my kids play with a Holga and a flash is wrong? Sheesh.

whatever you do, don't give your kids a mirror-flipping camera, by the time they grow up, those cameras will be like a rotary telephone

When I was 13 I worked one summer to save up money to buy my first real camera, a Canon A-1. My parents kindly bought my first lens, a 50mm f3.5 Macro. I also read several books about the camera before even owning it, so I knew exactly how to use it once I had it.

I still have both the camera and lens, and both still work great.

So basically, I'm not sure sure kids need special or dumbed-down cameras. But it depends on the kid, of course.

I cannot take this list of recommended cameras for children seriously due to the glaring omission of a must-have for every budding shutterbug.....the Lego camera!

I know you said digital but nothing gives my son as much joy as his Holga camera. He is 11 and loves the entire process.

When I was 12 or 13, my father gave me an Nikon FM2.....ahhhh...all the right dials at right place. I used it for 25 years before going digital.

After looking at these selections, I realize how lucky I was.

Like I said in the comment in the article, I like the idea of recommending cameras to kids and applaud DPR for looking into this area...but I also think that they should consider used DSLRs and not pay so much attention to getting the most compact setups possible.

With less than $200, you can easily get a used Nikon D50/70/100, or a Canon 300/350/400/450/1000/20D. Those cameras offer full manual control, good feature sets, very good image quality (better than the compact options, and arguably better than the Nikon 1 series), and IMO would make great learning platforms. You also have access to a large selection of cheap glass that can be natively mounted. With Nikon, that includes old MF glass.

My childhood camera saga began in 1997:

I took over my mom's Canon (New) Sure Shot (with wide and tele converter kit) when I was 9... graduated to a Pentax ME Super when I was 11 and got my first DSLR, a Canon 10D, in 2008. My older brother, also a shutterbug, spend two years worth of allowance money on a Canon A1 around the time I got the Pentax. Good times...

That picture is adorable!