If an eight-year-old tomboy wants to take pictures of friends while playing football, taking Dad's DSLR worth more than $ 1,000 for this purpose may not be the best idea. In addition to the fact that the boy runs the risk of breaking an expensive thing, he is also unlikely to cope with its management. In this situation, everyone will be better off if the child has his own camera.
Instructions
Step 1
The modern market is literally overflowing with so-called children's cameras. Most often they are made by well-known manufacturers of children's toys, such as Disney, Mattel or Fisher Price. In this case, the emphasis is on the external design of the camera, and not at all on its technical characteristics. Undoubtedly, the child will be delighted with the device with the drawing of Cars or Barbies applied to it, but the first delights will immediately come to naught as soon as it becomes clear that the quality of the captured frames does not even reach a mediocre level. And where does this quality come from, if Disney cameras have a resolution of 1.3 megapixels, and the Kidizoom device from Vtech is just miserable 0.3 megapixels. None of these cameras have an optical viewfinder, and only a few of them are capable of shooting video, and if they do, it is at a maximum resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. At the same time, it is either impossible to view the footage directly on the device due to the absence of a screen, or rather difficult due to its small size.
Step 2
Therefore, it is better not to throw money away, but immediately buy an adult amateur camera with normal technical characteristics. Even the cheapest models produce photos with a resolution of at least 7-8 megapixels, shoot videos of quite decent quality and allow you to view the resulting frames on a fairly large screen. At the same time, models of the initial range of manufacturers such as Samsung, Canon or Fujifilm are perfect for the role of a child's camera, thanks to the convenient operation, which will not be difficult for a child to master. But these cameras also have their drawbacks. On the one hand, most of them are equipped with retractable lenses, which immediately increases the risk of damage to the device in a possible fall, on the other hand, they are very susceptible to moisture, that is, it is still not recommended to use them near water.
Step 3
A way out of the situation can be the so-called outdoor-camera, that is, a camera designed for use in the field. For example, Nikon Coolpix AW120 without any harm to itself is able to survive a fall from a height of two meters, immersion in water to a depth of 18 meters, it is not afraid of either dirt or cold. But everything has a price and such a camera is often 3 or even 5 times more expensive than conventional models with similar technical characteristics. Which device to give preference to depends on the age of the child, his accuracy and what exactly and how he wants to photograph. Already at the age of 10, one of them can be entrusted with a SLR camera, which he will shoot with a professional approach, while the others, even at 15, will have enough of an ordinary soap box for shooting everyday scenes, they don’t need more.
