Can anybody recommended a camera? Something 8-year old boy proof, so fairly simple, solid and possibly waterproof? He’s done well with an old knackered compact so would be nice to upgrade. Zoom not hugely important. Budget up to maybe £150. Ta!

Our not-quite 3 year old has pretty much commandeered my Nikon AW100 waterproof camera. She runs round the garden with it, chucks it in the paddling pool, uses it in the bath, drops it on the patio – it’s fine though. I’d rather that, than it sits in a cupboard not getting used.

You can pick them up second hand on ebay for not too bad a price. But, any waterproof camera at a given price point is quite a compromise compared to a normal compact in the same price range because you pay a lot for the ‘tough’ bits and the waterproofing. They also generally have small lenses with poor aperture ranges, so aren’t great in low light.
I’ve got a Nikon P200, which is older than the AW100, but wipes the floor with it in outright picture quality & speed of use.

If you can get away with ditching the waterproof element of your requirements you’d get a lot better camera for your money. One of my nephews had a normal compact from about the age of 8 and really looked after it – but had it been given to one of my other nephews it would have been smashed into bits or dunked in a glass of squash within days. So, I suppose it just depends on your boy as to how well he looks after things and whether you need a ‘tough’ camera or not.

Fuji used to do some reasonably priced waterproof cameras, which were pretty good – my mate used to work for Fujifilm so always got hold of demo models. – You can get the XP130 from John Lewis new for £130.

ive got one he can have, a pentax optio 5.0 megapixel with some zoom.

sat in my draw for ages,

Go-Pro Hero4 Silver (the one with the screen on the back).

Lumix FT30 is not bad. It is tough and waterproof. Image quality is OK, though not great in low light. Available for about £100.

I just bought a 2nd hand Nikon AW100 from CEX for my daughters 9th birthday for £50 which seems a bit of a bargain. Havening broken a couple of standard compact myself a “Tough” camera seemed like a good junior option. It didn’t come in its original box and needed a bit of a clean but I’ve had a play and seems like a decent bit of kit for the money. Have a browse on CEX, the number of compact cameras on there for a fraction of their RRP is fairly staggering.

Thanks all, that’s helpful. Stumpy: it’s a good point. He’s pretty careful with this one, so maybe the ‘tough’ element is less of a factor. But, low light weakness probably isn’t a big deal vs having something he can take out and have fun with.

As ever, there’s a risk of over-thinking and over-spending. I like the CEX idea, good shout.