A Digital Camera Built Kid Tough

This Christmas, my wife and I bought my 4 year old daughter her first real camera, The Kid Tough Digital Camera from Fisher Price . After a week of solid play, all 3 of us could not be happier.

The Kid Tough Camera makes it easier for kids to take digital pictures. It sports everything your kid will want in a digital photography experience: instant gratification via a color screen, gender stereotypical colors with its masculine blue or feminine pink exterior, and simple 4-button interface.

The screen is a low resolution screen but it shows your kid enough quality for them to recognize they just captured a moment. By using large icons on the screen your kid can easily pick up the directions even if they can't read yet.

The interface consists of an ON/OFF button, a TRASH button, a VIEW NEXT button, and a VIEW PREVIOUS button. Beeps accompany each press of the button confirming they did in fact push it. My daughter picked it up in less than 5 minutes.

You will like the fact that it is bulky with a grip-friendly rubberized body, an impact resistant frame, and a moderate cost retailing around $70.

The fact that it comes with a more than adequate 8MB memory card built-in and that it takes 4 AA batteries is icing on the cake. My daughter took pictures all week before we had to replace the batteries and she took over 60 pictures before the card was full. But you can upgrade the memory with a new card. With an automatic turnoff feature, you never have to worry about wasting batteries with a turned on camera under the couch.

The camera comes with a USB cable that plugs into the back of the camera. The spring loaded cover for the outlet is just tricky enough that a kid won't jam stuff into it. The picture quality isn't bad. It is a 640×480 pixel picture—enough to enjoy it and definitely better than some camera phones. Certainly not enough quality to get rich colors and crisp, focused lines. See example of me taken by my daughter.

The thing my wife and I appreciated the most was everything except batteries were included in the box. No real need for additional memory. And even though Fisher Price sells a carrying case separately for this camera, I personally do not feel it is necessary.

I have nothing negative to say about this product. My wife went through an incredible adventure in finding one before Christmas. I'm sure glad she was successful. My daughter has started to take this camera everywhere she goes and I feel a sense of admiration in her newfound love of photography. I highly recommend it.

IDEA
Last month, you and I were named the Time Magazine's People of the Year for our role in shaping Web 2.0 with our MySpace pages, YouTube videos, and blogs. But web content should not be limited to adults. Kids can play a role in this new movement of individual expression. With this camera you can sign your kid up for a free Flickr account and publish their pictures for family, friends and the world to see. My daughter got a kick out of how her pictures are now viewable on the site I set up for family pictures. For a related article, check out why you should buy your kid a domain.