A version of this post appeared on the Just Photos By Me blog earlier in the year.

When DorkySon turned four, back in March, one of the presents we bought him was a camera. He had been showing an interest in my camera for a year or so prior to that, but it’s a heavy DSLR and he isn’t really strong or careful enough yet to use it without supervision. So we decided to get him one of his own – something that we’d be happy to let him loose with unsupervised. Photography is one of those things where I believe you learn best by messing around and making your own mistakes, so I wanted something that would be easy for him to use and wouldn’t necessitate me hovering over his shoulder the entire time.

We settled on a VTech Kiddizoom. It is not perfect, by any means. I wish it only took photos, rather than having all the games and clipart nonsense included, and I wish the picture quality were better, but as a starter camera – something to use while DorkySon decides whether he’s really interested in photography or not – it is fine. It is chunky enough that he can hold it and use the controls himself. It has been dropped and clunked into things once or twice and seems to have survived. Continue reading →