What Camera for a 5 year old?

[dewmuw]

My son has decided he would like a camera or a rabbit for his 5th birthday. I'm angling towards the camera as:

1. they don't poo
2. they don't need feeding
3. they don't get eaten by the local foxes

Has anyone bought a camera for a 5 year old? He's used my G3 a lot and is gettign quite good - but I won't be getting him a G5. Looking a something a little cheaper and rugged!

[PacAce]

My son has decided he would like a camera or a rabbit for his 5th birthday. I'm angling towards the camera as:

1. they don't poo
2. they don't need feeding
3. they don't get eaten by the local foxes

Has anyone bought a camera for a 5 year old? He's used my G3 a lot and is gettign quite good - but I won't be getting him a G5. Looking a something a little cheaper and rugged!

I, on the other hand (and this is just me), would buy my son (if he were still 5) a rabbit first (that's assuming the rabbit will be well taken care of). The reason is that pets are great for teaching kids compassion and kindness. (Of course, on rare occasions that may backfire and you end up with a kid who grows up hating rabbits and hunting them for sport :mrgreen:)

But I still would buy him a camera. When my son was 5 way back when, I bought him a Polaroid instant camera which was great because it gave him instant feedback of what he took a picture of. Of course, now-a-days, the digital P&S does the same thing except that you don't get the prints right away.

Sorry I can't give you any specifics on brands or models but you might want to check the web sites of some of the big toy manufacturers (like Mattel, Fisher-Price) and retailers (like Toy-R-Us) to see what they have. I know I've seen working digital cameras made specifically for kids. They're made of those bulky plastics that toys are made of, if you know what I mean, and look pretty durable.

[Ogrt48]

Yes, get him a pet so he can practice taking care of a life instead of a dear camera. :twisted:

[Mitchkitter]

I was down at ballard locks last week, it was so cute
Grandpa with a 10d
Grandma had a digital rebel
and the three grandaughters with a75's :P


they're realitivly easy to use, and theyre not that expensive :P

[BearSummer]

Thats easy,

Get him a Nikon D70 and when he grows up buy him a real camera. The only problem with buying your kids pets is that they die/get eaten/get cooked by the mistress etc etc. Thats why giga pets from several years back were a good idea, you had to look after them, feed them and be generally nice to them, and when the kid got totally bored by them you could take the batteries out. That doesn't work so well with rabbits, but at least you will have the makings of a nice stew.

And after all that, now for something useful

Kids cameras (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=digital+camera+kids)

Best regards

BearSummer

[Andy_T]

I think you'll get good experiences on this one here in the forum.

I think it was either TomW or IanD who mentioned that one of their pastimes was shooting pictures with the Barbie camera 8).
You might have seen the pictures proving that Ilya's son prefers the 70-200/2.8 IS lens over his other toys ...

My son is one and a half now, and he clearly wants my G2 badly :shock:
Sometimes I have to toss him the lens cap to keep him off...

'Technical things' fascinate him ... most likely he'll be an engineer when he's old enough, say 8 or so :lol:



Best regards,
Andy

[PacAce]

Thats easy,

Get him a Nikon D70 and when he grows up buy him a real camera. The only problem with buying your kids pets is that they die/get eaten/get cooked by the mistress etc etc. Thats why giga pets from several years back were a good idea, you had to look after them, feed them and be generally nice to them, and when the kid got totally bored by them you could take the batteries out. That doesn't work so well with rabbits, but at least you will have the makings of a nice stew.

And after all that, now for something useful

Kids cameras (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=digital+camera+kids)

Best regards

BearSummer

Well, how about a pet rock, then? I had one of them when I was a tike (man, I really miss that little one every time I think about him. :cry: ). Having a pet rocks are like having a cat but better. Like a cat, the pet rock will not perform tricks for you or come over when you call it. But it is better than a cat in that you don't have to feed it, it doesn't poo or pee and it doesn't shed or throw up hair balls all over your house. :shock: And more importantly if you're going to get your kid a camera, pet rocks make very good subjects. They stay in one pose and will stay that way until you're done taking pictures of them. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :lol:

[Steven M. Anthony]

I would go for a cheap 2 or 3 MP sony. I think they make a "sports" model with a more rugged casing around it.

[mdude85]

2. they don't need feeding



yes they do -- their favorite entree is your wallet. :wink: :wink:

I would say, get him a few $10 disposable cameras.

[DocFrankenstein]

I don't know much about digital cameras suited for a 5 year old, but assuming he can handle film SLR... you could buy him a manual SLR...

They are usually quite rugged and have a metal lens/body.

Zenit comes to mind... but I'm biased a bit cause I'm russian and I'm not sure of the quality...

http://www.rugift.com/photocameras/zenit_camera_122.htm I'm not sure a 5 year old will be able to handle stuff like that. :?

On the other hand, if he does, it's gonna be really cool.

[dewmuw]

Thanks for all the replies.

He does already have some pets - so the rabbit is just another in the list. I don't want him to think of the animals as toys.

I guess I have lots of food for thought here!

[Ikinaa]

My daughter will be 6 in December and she likes to take pictures with my cam. I often give here my ixus300 to 'play' with.
I'm also thinking of buying here a cam and thought some time about the fuji q1, but apparently that's not a so good cam (only sharp in the middle of the picture from what I've heard)
On the other hand I've told myself, if she's really interested (and she seems to be, here favorite subject is her one-year-old brother and she shoots animals and flowers when we go for a walk), then why not buy her something good, like a canon :P The A60 seems to be about the cheapest (175Euro at amazon.de) , with 2 Mpix and seems to have good critics.
Ok... 175 Euro isn't nothing, but I prefer buying her a cam (a useful object) than a playstation for the same price.

Hmm... as you see I haven't decided yet, so if you've found out more, please post here, I'm interested...

[Sketcher]

My 3.5 year old daughter will be getting this or similar/better this Christmas: Jamcam (http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/reviews/camera/1/jamcam/merge.shtml)

She often goes with me when I shoot and with close supervision handles my 10D quite well. I kind of passed off her interest early on but one day I took a picture of her and she insisted that I show her the preview (let me see Daddy!). What surprised me isn't that she was interested in seeing the picture, but that she told me to take it again because I didn't take the picture when she was smiling. Now I automatically show her previews and ask her if she likes close up or further away and she knows when a picture looks too bright or too dark to her liking.

More and more she wants to be behind the camera with me looking through the lens when I'm photographing the other kids, bugs whatever. I help her hold the camera most of the time but she does really well with it and gets the biggest smile on her face when I ask her if she wants to look through the lens. Most recently, I've attached the TC-80n3 and let her press the shutter when she wants the picture taken. With the camera hooked up to my laptop, she immediately sees a larger view of the picture she just took.

I look forward to my kids' interest in photography and anticipate the day when my photog teenagers are toting around the latest and greatest gear commenting to their friends that when their Daddy got into photography the cameras were still rated in Megapixels ;).

[Persian-Rice]

Wow,

Now that is my kind of kid, a kid that wants a camera at the age of 5............ does he like racing too? Then I might have to adopt lol.

Doc, I don't know, 5 is pretty young for an SLR, no? If I may suggest, get him something waterproof and preferably digital, so he can get instant gratification and see his pictures on the computer. A basic point and shoot with minimal features should be fine. I know to most of us it of much less importance, but I am sure he will like something that looks "cool" as well. Nice colours or clear body, you know...............

I would take a trip down to a local toy store, you can sometimes find things like cameras made for children. Good luck.

BTW, I had a rabbit when I was younger, they are great but a puppy is better :D hey get both and he can practise taking picture of his pet! haha

[Aylwin]

We got our 4 year old a digital cam last Christmas. It was a cheap 2nd hand Kyocera 3MP camera. It looks like an Ixus and we got it for less than US$100. Not very good though. We might get him another one in a year or two.

[DocFrankenstein]

Doc, I don't know, 5 is pretty young for an SLR, no? If I may suggest, get him something waterproof and preferably digital, so he can get instant gratification and see his pictures on the computer. A basic point and shoot with minimal features should be fine.
I don't really know... All I know it can be bumped a few times :lol:

I don't really remember the mental abilities of the average 5 year olds. Kids are yucky, I don't like them :roll: