As parents, we love it when our kids exhibit a creative streak. Indeed, we encourage creativity by buying crayons, safety scissors and paint.
Dora the Explorer camera
One creative area kids love to explore is photography. Your child will start asking to use your camera around age 4, and most of the time, since he or she usually has sticky fingers and tends to drop things, you refuse the request. If you agree, you hover over them to protect the camera.
So when you’re shopping at the big toy store and see a chunky, plastic-encased digital camera embossed with your kid’s favorite character — say Batman or Dora — you might get excited. “Perfect,” you think. “This camera is affordable and my kid can drop it!”
Don’t buy the camera.
The vast majority of “character” cameras are terrible. They are not durable (trust me) and worse, they take lousy pictures.
How lousy? The only way your kid will get a usable image is if he perches the camera on a tripod to capture an absolutely still subject bathed in perfect light. Think that will happen?
The Dora camera pictured above sells for about $50 at various retailers, probably less if you look closely. The lens offers a resolution of 640 x 480, or 0.3 megapixels. That imaging capability was found on the very first camera phones a decade ago. Today’s low-end camera phones (free with contract!) offer 2 megapixels and proper point-and-shoot digital cameras offer at least 8 megapixels, with most at 10 or above.
Worse, the digital lag is so profound on these cameras that every image comes out blurry. Digital lag is the time between snapping a picture and when the camera captures the image. It’s a problem with all point-and-shoot cameras but worse here since kids rarely stand still when taking a picture.
Odds are strong your kids will be disappointed with the images they create. To be fair, many kids — particularly around age 3 — will love having the camera as a toy.
A better solution to tap into a kid’s creativity is to give them a hand-me-down digital camera. Many people have older 2-, 3- or 4-megapixel cameras in the house they don’t use anymore. Give that to your child — with the freedom to explore and shoot images at will — and you’ll be amazed by the results.
Another option: Give your kid the old camera when you buy a new one. I thoroughly suggest a point-and-shoot waterproof model for family fun. Here’s a post on why it’s awesome to go swimming with a camera.
One Comment
I totally agree about the kiddie cameras. And you know, the kids are more impressed with their accomplishments when they use a ‘real’ camera. Maybe all those ‘that’s not a toy’ comments make some sort of impression, because they look and act differently when they’re using a grownup machine.
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If your kid likes to take pix, a hand-me down digital camera is far better than a character-themed dud. http://tinyurl.com/yelup9u
Don't buy your kid a Dora camera this holiday. Here's why: http://tinyurl.com/yelup9u
RT @ericbendy: Don't buy your kid a Dora camera this holiday. Here's why: http://tinyurl.com/yelup9u
@gladdads Another item for your Dora list — don't buy a Dora camera http://bit.ly/8VOkrl
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by ericbendy: Don’t buy your kid a Dora camera this holiday. Here’s why: http://tinyurl.com/yelup9u...
@ericbendy That's a great post. I'm going to take your advice on the toy cameras. Leave them in the store. http://short.to/14lbl
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