Customer Reviews

Fisher Price Kid-Tough Digital Camera for Boys

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

This is an awesome toy plain and simple. It will keep your young child occupied and entertained for many many months to come. I feel for the price it is an excellent value.

However please be advised this is not an awesome camera. In fact as a camera it is way below average. Think cell phone quality photos and you won't be far off the mark. However a young child does not care about photo quality. They care about fun and usability and Fisher Price has delivered this in spades. Now on to the review:

This camera is colorful, chunky and easy for a child to hold. I bought this for my 4 year old son who was always asking to use my digital SLR. My choice was a cheap megapixel camera designed for adults that would deliver reasonable pictures but was still complex for a child to use or this toy camera that was easy to use but delivered sub-par photos. I knew my son would get more fun out of being able to take pics like daddy than reviewing them later for quality on a computer so the choice was easy.

This camera is very easy to use and very well designed. The viewfinder is used with both eyes so your child does not have to close one eye (which is in fact very hard to do for a 4 year old believe it or not!). There is one red button on top to press to take the photo. No zoom or focusing to worry about it so it shoots quickly. In low light the flash works automatically. The flash recharges in about 2-3 seconds. The resulting picture is promptly displayed on a small lcd screen on the back of the camera (just like dad's!). The resolution of this lcd is sub-par but kids will not care about this.

Also on the back are the power on button and two buttons to scroll thru the saved pics (again just like dad's). There is also another red button on the back to delete the photo being reviewed. I was surprised my son figured out how to delete pics without being shown. Very easy and intuitive to use.

The hand grips are chunky and rubberized and easy to hold. My son has not dropped it yet. He has thrown it during a tantrum and it survived handily. For the price you could buy a megapixel camera but these are hard for kids to hold and will be dropped and broken in short order. You could hit this thing with a mallet and it would come out unscathed.

It takes 4 AA batteries (not included) that are placed in pairs in the bottom of each grip. This keeps the camera balanced and again easier to hold. You will need a phillips screwdriver to open the battery compartment so keep one handy at home AND in your car. It also comes with another small battery that will keep the pics saved in between battery replacements. It looks like one of those 5 year batteries so just pop it in and forget about it.

The camera has 8mb of internal storage that will hold roughly 70 pics. You can insert an SD card to expand this memory. I put in a 256mb SD card that are close to free nowdays and it will hold over 2000 pics. This sounds like alot but your child will fill it up over a few days of constant happy snapping. On 4 alkaline AA's my son captured over 6000 pics with about a third of those using the flash. Battery life is excellent. Fisher Price wisely included a battery saving feature that will turn the camera off if left unused for a minute or two. Thankyou.

There is a USB connector behind a small sliding door on the back of the camera. A USB cord is included. Don't worry about installing any software....connect the USB cord to your computer and windows will automatically recognize it as a mass storage device. Now you have an SD card reader and storage device in emergencies as well!

Now the photo quality is not very good. My son could care less and to be honest I don't really care either. Being able to see the world from my 4 year old's perspective totally blows my mind. Photo qulaity may be poor but the ability to shoot memorable pictures remains. These will look fine as 4x6 prints for a childs very own photo album. Trust me when I say a young child has a unique and valuable perspective on any event and you and your child will cherish these great pictures even if the photo quality is not up to par.

So why didn't I give this camera 5 stars? If Fisher Price included a neck strap (just like dad's) I would be more than happy to give it 5 stars.

I purchased the new kid-tough camera for my daughter, who is 6 years old. In the past she's relied on disposable point-and-shoot cameras for taking on school field trips. The only problem: we'd develop the film and find out half the shots were bad. Now with the new FP digital camera, she can snap to her hearts content (that is if you add the optional SD memory card....as the camera will only take about 60 shots before maxing out the internal memory). The software that is bundled with the camera is windows PC compatible. I use a Mac, and photos downloaded fine from the USB interface. Overall, the quality of the camera is good. The double "viewfinder" style eyepiece makes it easy for young kids to focus on their subject without squinting one eye. The controls are very easy to use, whether your child is old enough to read or not. It takes 72 dpi pics, which is fine for printing 4x6 photos. And because it's digital, you can choose which pics to print...a savings from developing the whole roll of 35mm film. Two criticisms: The $70 price tag does seem a bit high. It would be a better bargain if priced closer to $50. It uses 4 AA batteries, rather than a single rechargeable. (Although I am using rechargeable AAs). I'm finding that changing the batteries is a real pain because I have to keep reaching for the phillips-head screwdriver to take off the child-proof cover. Nice if you have a really young child, but a hassle for the parents of older kids.

My husband and I are both avid shutterbugs, and my almost 3 year old son really wanted a camera to take his own photos. We had a few gift cards that we had not used, so we invested in this camera. He was very excited to get it and uses it often, he especially likes to take it on Photo Safaris with us. It is also a hit in the neighborhood among all the kids who take photos like crazy with it.

Pros: Seems quite durable. Buttons are easy to use for him, while the batteries and sd card (optional) are easy to keep out of his reach. Photos download easily and cable is included in the kit. The optional SD card (I got a cheapie 512meg) adds storage for over 1000 extra pictures.

Cons: Does go through batteries quickly- but we use rechargables anyway for most things. Photo quality is TERRIBLE- and I just don't mean terrible because we are photographers ourselves, I mean TERRIBLE in general. The photos are most frequently blurry and dark- even with flash or bright sunlight. Also, I don't think they would even print well at 4x6 but we have not tried. We will have to upgrade him to a cheap digital point and shoot once he is able to treat this camera nicely. (I will upload a few sample shots to customer photos.) Another con is the discard photo button is right there on the back- great for them to erase the photo they just took without realizing it.It also makes a rather annoying noise when any button is pushed- which encourages the button pushing to go on and on and on.

OVerall, the camera performs as expected, just wish the photo quality was better, but again, this is a camera for my preschooler so I should not expect too many megapixels I guess.

I purchased 2 of these cameras for Christmas back in August. Because I was concerned with the photo quality after reading past reviews, I decided to open one to check it out. I found the photos to be a bit hazy, but I decided that I wanted to keep the cameras anyway. Since the 90 day store return policy was nearing, I decided to check them both out again. I took the same pictures with each camera and found that one camera's photos were clearer then the other. I couldn't believe it!! I exchanged the camera that produced the hazy photos, for a new one and the photos came out much clearer with the new camera. I am definitely keeping these cameras, as I think they photo quality is just fine. Trust me, I very much dislike blurry photos!

My 4-year-old used his own money to purchase this camera after his birthday, and we LOVE it. The buttons are easy for him to operate. Pictures look good- indoor shots tend to be a little dark, but outdoor ones look darn good, now that he's figured out he needs to hold the camera still while he takes a picture. I don't know if F-P has improved it since some of the previous reviews complained of battery use, but ours is still running on the batteries we put in when we got it mid-August, and they've survived regular daily use PLUS a 5-day trip to Disney World. (Where my son had the greatest time taking lots and lots of pictures!) The camera does shut off on its own after a few minutes of inactivity.

Shutter speed is quite quick, which is especially important for a kids' camera because they don't hold the camera still for very long! Also avoids frustration of "missed shots." We've printed his pictures out as 5x7s, and they've looked fine. We have added a memory card, but the internal memory of approximately 66 pictures was adequate for daily use.

Tip: Taking pictures too close to the subject will result in heads being cut out of the frame, because there's a slight disparity in what you see through the binocular viewfinder and what the lens is actually pointing at. We've now learned to take another step back before snapping the picture.

We get asked about this camera everywhere we use it. It's reliable, intuitive, economical, and FUN.

Incidentally, the current Amazon price is the best I've seen- it's priced the same at WalMart, but often they're sold out. Other stores generally are about $10 higher.

In a world of 10 megapixel cameras, expectations for toys need to be set properly. This is a 1/3 megapixel camera. It does a great job at what it was designed to do - take reasonably good pictures for a camera that can take a beating.

The LCD is grainy and doesn't reflect the image actually captured. On a PC, the image is better. Other kids cameras do a horrible job indoors. With the flash on this one, the indoor pictures are acceptable.

I would recommend this for all kids not responsible enough with a real digital camera, and old enough to not fire the flash at close proximity to eyes.

There's a few reasons why a parent would want a camera for their 3-year old child. Most likely they can't keep the kid away from their ready-to-break-any-second Canon Eos. Or maybe they want to cultivate the child's artistic talents. Or else they think it might be fascinating to digitally capture their child's eye-view of the world. For a 3-year old, this camera will accomplish these goals. The camera runs on 4-AA batteries. It is heavy and bulky, but durable and comfortable to wield. There is an optical viewfinder for composing the picture. There is a small LCD screen which is too grainy to be useful for framing the picture, but is OK to review pics after they are taken. There is no zoom capability, and the flash and focus are, of course, automatic. Besides the shutter release, there a 4 buttons on the camera: forward and backward scroll, on/off, and delete (more on this later).

Pros: --very durable, will practically bounce when dropped
--stylish, ergonomic, easy to point and shoot
--binocular optical viewfinder, making squinting to aim unnecessary
--automatic flash with decent indoor capabilities
--USB port- easy to download pics even without installing software
--decent storage memory

Cons: --Strangely, depite this success at simplifying digital photography for a toddler, there are some glaring defects in the design of the camera. For instance, you cannot turn off the sounds that occur whenever a button is pressed. They are loud, and not always appropriate to the setting (what if the child wanted to take pictures at a wedding? Does everyone need to hear loud squiggly beeping coming from his camera?) Also, the delete button is big and red and right there. In other words, it is the most prominent button on the camera. And it makes a cool sound when you press it too. It is easily possible to press the big red noisy button 20 times in a row, thus deleting every picture in the camera.
--Do I need to mention that the picture quality is lousy? We're not talking Carl Zeiss here. But resolution isn't everything. If a million typing monkeys could come up with Shakespeare, then a million toddlers with cameras can do Ansel Adams. Just look for the beauty through your child's eye.

There is not much good competition out there in children's digital cameras. Overall this camera is a decent choice for a toddler or preschooler. If it weren't for issues regarding the sound and button design mentioned above, I would recommend it more strongly. It takes passable pictures which are easily downloaded. It is durable, simple, easy to use, and most importantly, fun.

My [..] year old got this camera for his birthday and has used it non stop since. He loves the screen on the back and is content to see the pictures there rather than uploading them or printing them (bonus since most of his pictures consist of his toys or other household objects). If he ever does take print worthy pictures, 4x6 pics will suffice since my husband and I use our camera for important occasions. This camera keeps him for asking to use ours, and he loves that he has control of it. We had a Little Tikes camera that was a fraction of the price, but the film and developing charges alone would have paid for this camera long ago. I feel, in that sense, this camera was a bargain. He quickly learned how to delete, and the sound effects help him to know when the camera is off (helpful for battery life), when he has taken a picture or deleted one. It is very durable, in the first 24 hours he owned it it took a fall down the stairs and was dropped by cousins several times on a hardwood floor. It will hold 60 pics, but because he deletes them as he takes them it's not a problem. We may buy a cheap SD card for it in the future. Love it in every way!

My four year old has this camera and loves it. The binocular viewpiece makes it easy for her to shoot clear pictures. She loves to show her friends her pictures on the camera's display screen. She can easily manipulate the buttons to review pictures, delete pictures, and turn the camera on and off. The built in flash makes for clear pictures indoors and out. It is durable and loads of fun. This is a great camera!

We have bought this for our 6 year old and intend on giving it to her for a Christmas gift. We took it out of the box and played with it. It seems to be durable. We were concerned about photo quality after reading a couple of the reviews but took some photos and had them printed ourselves. I work in the photo graphics industry and professional quality photos they are not; however, this is a kid's toy and you have to keep that in mind. If you want professional photos buy a REAL high-end camera for your child to use. The images are just fine for a 4x6 photo. The best part is that we won't be buying film and paying for processing for photos that have chopped off heads, ground shots, animal behinds, etc. We can print just the good ones. I'm sure she is going to love this. If the pictures aren't being taken outdoors make sure the room you are in is well-lit. However, if they are a little dark, most photo processing places have equipment and computers have software to lighten them up and correct the problem. No big deal. I'm sure my daughter will absolutely love it. In my opinion, it is well worth the investment. The only suggestion I would have for Fisher-Price is to increase the resolution a tad to maybe 800x600 and maybe have a couple of flash options.