Is Three Year Old Kid Too Young For Camera?

raid

raid

Dad Photographer
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Some of you may have seen my daughter, Dana, in my tests of lenses. She now wants to do what Dad does and she wants a camera. She already had before some fancy fake camera that makes sounds and has a flash, but now she wants a real camera. Yesterday, she tried out an old and heavy (broken) Retina Reflex but I finally convinced her that it was broken and that no adding of batteries would fix it. She typically thinks that replacing batteries will make a toy work again.

I got to think about what type of camera to give Dana to learn photography at her young age. Film based photography will be a costly since she will most likely not take good photos anyways. Maybe an old simple and light digital camera with 1MP will be the optimal solution here.

I threw away an old Kodak digital camera a few days ago, and I only have a Fuji 2MP camera left in my home. I use this camera for taking photos os camera equipment when I want to sell something online. {By the way, I will very soon sell a Nikkor 135mm/3.5 lens with all lens covers and original chrome lens hood and old leather case.}

Does anyone here have a suitable digital camera to sell me for Dana? Thanks.
I did not think that this is a WTB ad, but I am wondering how to get my daughter a suitable camera. Maybe I get some good suggestions from people who already have given their daughters and sons cameras early in life.

Regards,

Raid
 
A nice compact one should do. My parents started me off with a toy camera. It used film, but was still hard plastic and very resilient.

Something like that is cheap. Over here you can go to Boots and pick one up for a few £ with a nice kiddy design on it.

Once your child gets more intuitive then move to a more advanced cam. Film can be cheap. Cheap colour film, cheap overnight/7day processing.


Otherwise check the internet for a camera without LCD, very few features, just a quick pocketable point and shoot.
 
She's too young to know what she's doing, but not too young to have fun with a cheap digital camera. I don't see any point to getting a three year old a film camera - an LCD will let her see what she just took a photo of.

If you go to any electronic box store, you'll find some very cheap digital cameras with LCDs.

Kodak makes an Easy Share that I have seen for under $75 - the Easy Share C300. My nephew, who will turn four in August, got one for Christmas and walked around the house burning up the memory card with photos of every thing that stood still long enough for him to snap it.
 
My friend has a 3yo niece who uses a cheapy digicam. She takes pictures all the time. DOesn't know how to get them into the computer, doesn't even care to, but she uses the camera.
 
Wimpler said:
Change her name to diana and give her a diana toy camera so she can get some medium format shots 😉
Click to expand...


There you go. Get her something in medium format.

Mamiya RZ67.
 
Three is probably too young for anything other than a toy. My 3-year old LOVES to look at pictrues made with digicams but doesn't have the dexterity, vision, or interest to really take pictures. He'll "mock" me when I take pictures using any object that is approximately rectangular. My 8-year old, on the other hand, is quite ready for his own camera. You know your child better than we do, but for me... I'm waiting until I know my kids won't get frustrated.
 
raid amin said:
Does anyone here have a suitable digital camera to sell me for Dana?
Click to expand...
I think the MF camera is a good idea, but I'll still look. I just threw away a made in China crapacam I bought four years ago, and that died a few years back, and was only keeping it hoping to play around with the sensor.

When I picked all the pieces up (box, manual, etc.) to throw away last month, I found my old Nikon Coolpix 5xx. It may be too "gadgety", though; still have two batteries for it, and a 64MB card; haven't used it in years. I'll let you know.

I may still have a Vivitar digital 3MP camera that's pretty simple. It locked down once, but hasn't since, and uses "AA" batteries. That's got to be stored in the office closet somewhere. I'll look.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I hope to get a digital camera that is not too fancy. Dana is a very smart girl. She recalls events when she was only 16 months old.

Regards,
Raid
 
My daughter of 2 3/4 was recently given a Barbie camera. Fully functional, plastic, film camera in shocking pink. There zero documentation about what type of film to use and so on. We've loaded it with Neopan 400 and are planning to develop with Diafine 😀
 
Raid,
I have just returned from the mall(not my favorite place but sometimes I can't avoid going there) and after I was done checking out the photo magazines at the bookstore, I stopped into Ritz/Wolfe(whatever the heck they're called now) to grab some XP2. While I was there, I noticed a big display of "kid's" digicameras. Mostly cheap(less than 40 dollars or so to about 10), low MP counts and the seemingly obligatory bright primary colors. I really only noticed what was on that display 'cause I banged mt FED5 into it 😱 but I then remembered your post.
Might be worth checking out? I suspect they have the same or better selection on their web site. Or you could look for some cheap Disposable 35mm cameras?
I started letting my nephew try out my cameras when he was a little older than your daughter and found he's got a pretty good eye(I'm absolutely prejudiced in his favor on this point 😀 ). I think if you can find either a film or digi that isn't too "fiddly" and fairly robust that will be good! And you'll get to see alot of photo's from her eye-level which ought to be interesting. Sounds like a fun summer for Dad and Daughter!
Rob
 
Gabriel was so kind as to offer a camera for Dana for free (only shipping). Thanks.
I will try to teach Dana the basics of holding a camera and so on. Hopefully, I will have some photos to post. No clue where though. Is there a "Children's Corner" ? 🙂

Regards,
Raid
 
I have two kids and I think three is too young. I would say at about age 5, a Polaroid with *close* supervison will thrill any kid. They love the immediacy of Polaroids. Even up to age 7 they will sometimes shoot off a whole roll of flim at random things in a few minutes -- that's where the supervision comes it ! (it's funny, but expensive)
 
The cost is a good reason for using digital.
I will try ... and that's all I can do, to teach Dana some basics.
Maybe, if I insist that the camera is mounted a little tripod, she can start learning how to look through a viewfinder. We'll see soon.
 
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