Top of Grace’s Christmas list for Father Christmas was a camera.
In the end, Santa went with the Vtech Kidizoom.
It was tough to find many reviews for it, so I thought I’d share a few of Grace’s snaps with it so far, for anyone interested to see what the image quality is like – all of the photos in this post were taken by Grace (our 4 year old) with the Kidizoom.
The camera cost £40, and produces JPEGs with a resolution of 640×480. There is about 12 MB of storage in the camera, which has enough space for at least a couple of hundred pics, and an SD card slot if you need more space.
The pictures are a little fuzzy, but Grace is certainly happy enough with them.
The camera does have a flash, which means indoor pics are possible.
It can be tricky getting the distance right when using the flash – too far away and the flash is no use at all and the picture is very dark, too close and the flash is too bright creating a bright white picture. (Although this has created a couple of neat pics such as this one!)
The camera also includes some fun features – such as adding effects to pictures. You can choose from a variety of borders, or novelty overlays like bunny ears or funny glasses. It’s kinda cute, and is still enough to make Grace laugh. 🙂
There are also a few simple games on the camera – a noughts-and-crosses game, a memory card game, and a neat jigsaw game where a picture you’ve taken is used as the puzzle. These have proved very popular – Grace loves them, and has spent ages playing all of these.
The menu system is kid-friendly enough that Grace can use the camera by herself – taking pictures, looking at the pictures she’s taken, adding effects, and playing the games.
The camera came with a USB cables to connect it to a PC – and we let her choose the photos she likes to upload to her flickr account. It also came with a cable for connecting to a TV – you can view pictures on the TV, or play the games on it, using it like a simple portable console.
All in all, I think Santa did well. 🙂
Grace loves her camera, and it’s probably her favourite Christmas present.
The image quality, if not good, is good enough, and as a toy, it ticks all the right boxes.
Tags: camera, children, digital camera, kidizoom, kids, vtech
I like the lomo-quality of the pics. Neat.
my boy got one of these for xmas and is loving it. image quality isnt hot but its super easy to use and easy to master. having the inbuilt games is a bonus. is a great bullet proof toy that will no doubt provide many hours of amusing candid shots.
It’s a bit like living with paparazzi, isn’t it? 😉
I was surprised by how popular the games were with Grace… I was tempted by the Fisher Price Kid Tough camera – similar price, and is sold as being waterproof/dropproof/shockproof etc. but my wife convinced me that Grace would enjoy the vtech one more. She was right. 🙂
These cameras really are a great way to get kids doing something creative. It is so funny to see what our kids are taking pictures of!
I love the Kidizoom and don’t agree with some of the reviews that it has had, yeah it doesn’t hold that many photos and also the quality isn’t fantastic but this is a camera for kids for gods sake and they love making use of it. My kids have had hours of fun making use of the Kidizoom and they just love the way the camera looks, it’s a toy after all and thus I think it’s well worth the money.