we're going away with our 5 year old grandaughter next week and thought it would be nice to let her take her own photos, look through them while we're waiting to eat in the evenings to keep her occupied, that sort of thing.
shes 5 going on 15, knows her way around youtube and google photos and the like, so simple technology wouldnt be beyond her.
i thought an old phone with no sim, set to wifi and google photos would probably be better/easier, my wife disagrees and thinks a dedicated phone that she can carry easily would be a better fit. personally i think that takes away the ability to look at the photos on a screen 'on the hoof'.
what say you oh wise ones? and any recommendations? we'd give an old phone a try if we had one, but we dont so we'll have to buy something, its just what.....
thanks
We have a kids camera with a little screen and a built in printer. Can't remember the brand, but I can check when I'm home tonight if you like.
It's ace. I mean it's rubbish by grown up camera standards, but MiniMonkey v1.0 loves it because it's super simple, and she can print stuff straight off. It's a very, very low quality printer but she loves coluring it in and drawing on it. She can also add in flowers and stuff on the camera before printing.
We've mostly kept her away from phones and YouTube and stuff though, so the balance of analogue and non-connected digital suits that.
Ours went from something like this:
to a Samsung A7 tablet, then a smart phone.
Waterproof/tough cameras used to be the best option, but seem a bit outdated now.
We have a kids camera with a little screen and a built in printer
Is it a Fujifilm Instax? No.1 spawn has the standalone printer for this which she loves.
We've got an old Kodak digital camera that I put a new battery in, which is used for school trips and so on where they're not allowed phones.
You will end up with a house covered in millions of printed out photos though. Its basic thermal printer paper (similar to use to print receipts) so its cheap.
Ours was given a Fujifilm Instax Mini, and it's not great - there's no digital screen (so they can't see their photos and choose which ones to keep), it prints out straight away, and the film packets are expensive. And the photos are utter toss - out of focus, the light is awful etc.
She loves taking photos with one of our phones or the tablet though, so I'd suggest an old phone perhaps with a little photo printer at home?
I would buy a s/h, older, branded camera. Something with about 5mp can be bought for £20 - £30. She can put the strap around her neck, so not going to drop it.
You can still print decent photos from 5mp.
Waterproof/tough cameras used to be the best option, but seem a bit outdated now.
We bought ours a Fujifilm FinePix XP camera, can't remember exact model but drop-proof to about 1mtr and waterproof to something decent too. Surprisingly good photos. Around £50 but that was 8 years ago now and can't see anything similar now.
our kids enjoy the printer cameras too. We have a Brand name Vtech KidiZoom Print cam.
VTECH.CO.UK Works well, black and white receipt print outs are fun and less stressful when theyre rattling through print outs at a rate of knots. Good controls (you can limit the daily print limit, and you can also hide the inbuilt games. Very tough construction.
Obviously it also retains the images digitally (and you dont have to print the photos), Ive put a big card in it and perodically recover the photos for the archives.
We also have a chinesium amazon one, and tbh i think the print quality and image quality is better, though the interface isnt as slick, it doesnt have the "selfie" mode, and doesnt feel bomb proof as the vtech
Interestingly, i bought some "off brand" reciept rolls (theyre standardized in size), and the print out qualities are noticiebly poorer
We buy the genuine vtech paper now.
