The Dudeling loves taking pretend pictures and playing with tablets/phones that capture images. I want to get him a camera, but everything I’m finding is relatively crapulent.
I basically want the picture quality of my circa 1999 4MP Olympus point-and-shoot (with fewer shooting features) wrapped in a waterproof and relatively shockproof case.
But almost everything I’m finding is only 1 MP, and I’m hearing lots of complaints about overall quality. And the cameras aren’t all that cheap.
Look, I know he’s not A. Adams Jr., but that doesn’t mean the one in a thousand picture will be something we’ll want to frame and hang. And (unfortunately), he won’t be three forever. Not that he’ll keep it though high school, but at four, five and six he should be able to have some control over what he shoots, and it would be nice if it wasn’t on a crappy unit.
Am I overlooking something? What about an aftermarket case sold to divers or adventurers? Do they make such a thing?
Why not go on eBay or Craigslist and just buy a secondhand, cheap camera?
If it’s cheap enough, it can be considered expendable if he breaks it, and the shopping/shipping time for its replacement will be long enough to make him careful with the second one, at least.
The craigs/ebay route with a rugged camera sounds like a great idea. I wouldn’t want to go with a straight camera, as they’re delicate even for a careful three year old. He’s got plenty of responsibility as it is (he just got a promotion at the textile mill where he works during the day), but if we get anything like our Olympus iHS he should be (relatively) set. Maybe the Lego or Fisher Price cameras will take more abuse, but the images should last longer.
Makes me wish I was shooting with more than a 110 or Kodak disc camera as a kid.
When my girls were little I took an old digital camera and chained together a few stretchy head bands and made them wear it around their necks at all times. They were pretty good about it. The camera ultimately did get dropped though, but not ruined. I’ve ruined more cameras than they have (stumbling around taking pictures of them, of course).