Ever since I’ve gotten into photography more seriously a few years ago, my daughter has been asking to have a turn with my camera whenever we’re out and about. I’d like to get her a cheap camera like the kodak charmera, but I was curious if:
A) anyone had experience with the kodak charmera, and would recommend it for an 8yr old
B) there was a small very cheap camera like the charmera that is better quality without being much more expensive.
I’ve looked on places like amazon, but with all of the smash face into keyboard brand names, it’s tough to determine if any of them work well. I’m not looking for high quality pics, but something small and relatively durable for her to have fun with, so I can not feel guilty keeping my camera to myself. Eventually I’ll upgrade my camera body and she can use my rebel t5, but that might not happen for a while.
Ask older friends or cousins if they have compact cameras they don’t need. Quite often, I got these for free. It would be great if they are 10mp. Dont expect them be better than modern mobile phone. In addition, important to give them a camera strap and lens cover with a string attached to avoid accidents. FYI, I have a lumix LX3 that I am still shooting for fun. If you are buying used, ensure you check the memory card and batteries the camera used. Ensure there is still 3rd party stock available.
she’ll be turning 8. As for interests, whenever she gets to use my camera, she’ll take pictures of anything that happens to catch her eye. She takes after me where her interests are all over the place, and sometimes fleeting. Nothing that I can tie a direct connection to photography other than she has fun taking random pictures.
We have my wife’s old point and shoot from highschool (~15yrs ago). The batteries barely hold a charge, and the aftermarket ones I bought don’t fare much better. I know my phone camera will probably be better than whatever we decide on, but I think the novelty of it, along with the camera being hers will go a long way.
My kids had an Olympus TG6 (one of those tough, indestructible underwater cameras), an INSTAX, and a Nikon 1 J3.
The Instax worked best. It takes horrendously bad pictures, but the fact that they can print them is extremely fun to them.
The others worked well, but require a non-USB charger, which I found highly annoying. Most important for me was that the camera produces raw files, so as to fit into my photo management workflow.
These days, my eight-year-old just gets to use my smaller camera. But even the X-M5 is a bit heavy for them, so they don’t want to carry it for more than a few minutes.
Something like the X-Half sounds like a good compromise, but obviously not at that price.
I have a Kodak PixPro FZ55. It’s cheap, but I would not recommend it for an 8-year-old:
It has enough settings to confuse an 8-year-old child. The auto mode does not cut it, as the camera does not have any image stabilization and does not know the “don’t shoot slower than 1/f” rule in auto mode.
It cannot photograph a domestic cat properly. The denoiser (that cannot be turned off) turns the fur into a mess even under direct sunlight.
It crushes blacks and turns darks into greens (problem with unbalanced black level across channels).
I would skip the “Kodak” line and get a Pentax WG-1000. It is the baby brother of their WG-6 and WG-8 line, but only a bit above 200 eur. Never had this specific camera, but according to reviews it shoots decent JPEG. And, of course, she can take it underwater.
My wife gifted it to me last year. I can tell you that this is no more than just a toy. And it relies heavily on the nostalgic feeling we have from the not-so-good early digital look. If you don’t have that feeling in you, the photos it produces could only be viewed as utterly flawed and awful.
Here’s a sample photo I took with it which sums it up pretty well.
I have a thermal print camera that can immediately print on thermal paper. The camera is cheap - got one that doesn’t look so ‘childish’ - and the paper is cheap too (try to get BPA free ones). The image quality is totally bad, not even up to early digicam standards and not for archiving, memory, etc. The prints are nothing to shout about but has a low quality appeal. The immediate ‘excitement’ that kids, and adults too, get when you pass them the ‘photos’ is just something you can’t get from just showing them your camera/phone screen.
It’s fun. Search for discussions on Reddit for the various types of cameras and prints.
Thanks for clarifying. Then I would go with the thermal print camera as recommended by @scribbleed. They are usually B&W and the images fade over time, and most of them have a 1/4" sensor, but that is totally fine for the print size in daylight and having instants prints is so much fun. Think of them as non-bankrupting versions of the Fujifilm Instax, $40 gets you one of these cameras plus a few rolls.
I have to laugh. I destroyed my first Olympus TG because it got ‘splashed’ with water while the charging cover was open. My mobile phone was more water resistant. I then destroyed its replacement because I scuba dived to 11.7 meters while the camera claimed it was good for 15. In fairness Olympus Australia replaced it free of charge even though it was out of warranty. I now have a TG6 with underwater housing for scuba diving. A reasonable good camera for a scuba diver who doesn’t want to spend thousands, but not cheap for an eight year old.
I would suggest seeing if friends have an old camera to test out your daughters interest before buying one.
I realize this has been dormant for a bit, but I think any point and shoot off of eBay or Facebook marketplace or whatever your local equivalent is would work. Heck, you could probably get an older Canon Rebel DSLR with kit lens for $50 or so.
If you want something new and under $50 and not junk it will be harder.
