I’ll admit it. When my mother first told me she want to buy my then 3 year old a digital camera, I thought she was crazy. Not only was the one she was looking at expensive ($70), but I wasn’t sure what my son would take pictures of, and then what would I do with them?

Ignoring my reservations (because really, isn’t that what grandma is supposed to do?), she bought my son the Fisher-Price Kid Tough Digital Camera and I was soon proven to be very wrong.

Not only do both my kids (my son, 6 and my daughter, 3) love having a camera “like mommy” – their pictures also give me an amazing perspective on their worlds. Photos taken at what is my waist height remind me what the world looks like from “down there” and multiple snaps of the cat, my husband, me and their favorite toys, shows me what’s important to them.

There are four reasons I love this camera:

• It’s tough. Whatever thoughts I initially had about just giving the kids one of our hand-me down cameras was forgotten the first time the camera was thrown from a moving stroller. Now nearly three years, and another kid later, and the camera is still going strong. It has been dropped, kicked, thrown, thrown up on (okay, near) and shoved between the seats in the car for several months.



• It’s digital. My second idea, just buying the kids a cheap 35 mm camera, was also set aside when I realized how much it would cost to develop the photos taken by my mini-Ansel Adamses. Through the magic of digital photography, I can review the many (many, many) pictures they can take to find the one or two gems I want to keep.



• It’s creative. Or should I say, it seems to encourage their creativity and observational skills. During a trip to the Boston Aquarium last year, my son was obsessed with capturing a photo of a shark circling the large center tank. It took him many tries, and several laps around the tank, before he got what he wanted.



• It doesn’t get old. The camera is probably one of the oldest toys we own, and whenever it comes out it’s a hit. It does get forgotten, or trapped at the bottom of the toy box, but when it is rediscovered and reloaded with new batteries, it’s ready to go.

And how, you may ask, are the pictures? Honestly, they aren’t great. The camera is only 1.3 megapixels, and the photos often look grainy (below are a couple of samples from my son’s portfolio).  The other complaint we have is that the LCD preview screen does a terrible job of displaying photos – but the kids don’t seem to care.

Since we’ve received our camera there seem to be more options becoming available, some with more “bells and whistles”, including:

• VTech Kidizoom – This camera looks suspiciously like our Fisher Price, but includes a couple of features including the ability record video (cool) and three built-in games (seems unnecessary).



• Disney Pix Micro Digital Camera – At just $20, the price is right on this camera from the folks at Disney, but I’m guessing it’s going to be too small for my kids still-pudgy hands.



• Crayola Digital Camera – Similar in price to our camera, the Crayola has two handles seemingly designed to make it easier for little hands to hold.

Does your son or daughter (or both) have a digital camera? If so, what kind? And what do they take pictures of?