Kids digital cameras?

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HI. My DD who will be 7 wants a camera for her birthday. Im not sure which one to go for, I was going to get one of those plasticy vtech ones but I havent heard very good things about them and think she might be too old now. I have seen in argos High school musical ones and hello kitty one that looks quite cute.

Thanks

I just got my DD (8) a normal digital camera from Comet. Its bright pink, a Fuji Finepix one. Was reduced from £120 to either £59 or £69. She's thrilled to bits with it and worked out how to use it straight away.

At that age I would get a proper one. Just make sure the screen at the back is a decent size. It works out a lot cheaper and the photos will be good quality

It was this one I bought.

www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/565601/FUJIFILM-A160?cm_sp=FeatureEnd--Digital_Cameras--position

I have now been looking at the vech pro camera, about £75 but looks better than the cheaper fisher price/ v tech ones. Does anyone have one of these?

If I get her an adult camera what should I be looking for? Mega pixels is important? The higher the number the better? one I saw was 0.1 or similar, the vtech pro is 2 mega pixal and an adult one was 7 mega pixels. Im confused.

More pegapixels generally equals better. Mp hone is 3.1 mega pixels and its rubbish.

Some people reckon that too many megapixels in a small camera can spoil picture quality. Have you looked on amazon for reviews?

My 7y DDhas had a proper digital camera since she was abut 5y. She has a Canon Powershot one which was half price just before Christmas that year - so ended up costing only about £10 than the children's one that had just come out. Was far higher megapixels so better picture quality, plus had other options on and video for her to grow into. We deliberately chose a chunky camera so it was a bit more sturdy and it was very straight forward to use. The screen was bigger too, again to make it easier to use.

2 years on it still works great and takes good photos. Was definitely worth getting a proper one IMO.

you need to look for an optical zoom, not digital zoom

We have a normal 'old' one that DS2 (5) uses and DS1 (7) uses our current one which was quite pricey but he's careful with it and can actually take really good pictures.

I really wouldn't bother with a childrens version. I think they are overpriced and probably nowhere near as good as a similarly priced normal one.

asda have an ok one for £25 at the moment either black or pink- can't remember the technical details but it was more than good enough for a kids camera - really straightforward and came with all the cables as well...

We have only bought the kid one because ds2 is 3yrs old and will drop it a lot.

At 7 I would buy a proper digital camera.

The more megapixels the better the image quality. All pictures are made up of tiny dots (pixels) so the more dots the picture is made of the sharper the image.

Keep it simple, doesn't have to be all singing all dancing, just easy to transfer pictures from the camera to the computer.

I would go to somewhere like Jessops to get their advice, I probably wouldn't buy from them but would use their knowledge

I think it might be worth buying at Jessops too - perhaps find the camera in the shop, find a lower price on the web, and go back and see if they will price match. They might not like it, but they either say yes and get a sale, or no, and know why they lost the sale.

Be fair about any delivery costs though, so be willing to haggle a little if they want a few quid more than the one on the web - simply because you will have the satisfaction of knowing you have a local shop if there is a problem, and that you are taking it home, so no delay in getting it in time (or if there's a problem, having to chase a remote, online, business).