Customer Reviews

Hello Kitty Digital Camera - 3MP

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

We bought this camera for our daughter for Christmas thinking it would be perfect for her. She loves to take pictures with our Nikon Coolpix camera, and really does a great job with it, so we thought it was time for her own. 3 mpixels, pink, USB charger, Hello Kitty software... what could be better for our budding female photographer, right? She was ecstatic to start using it after she opened it, and she did. Picture quality was horrible. The flash washed out images... color reproduction was horrendous... everything was out of focus. The user interface also is not at all intuitive, and the manual is not the best. I pick up digital cameras all the time, and usually can easily navigate to the features I want -- not with this one. The picture that was just taken does not even appear on the LCD screen -- you have to go through a series of menus to even look at it. My daughter could do this just fine, but it's not ideal for seeing if you got the picture or not. And the worst part was that the camera kept locking up on her requiring a reset -- about every 30 minutes or so. Needless to say, this camera went back to the store where we bought it. It's a cute little camera, but don't expect any quality whatsoever if you choose to buy it.

I purchased this unit for my daughter who loves taking pictures, and actually frames them nicely with my own camera. Because all the other "kids cameras" have *aweful* specs. (e.g. 640x480) and even worse reviews (image quality, battery life, etc), this one seemed like the best of the bunch -- a "real camera" she could grow into (not just a toy).

Despite the wonderful specs, I agree with the last reviewer for the most part.

The good:
- Flash
- Self-focusing
- Pretty style and strap
- Built-in rechargable battery last a long time!
- "real camera" functions including a self-timer, white balance and more
- Expandable -- has an SD card
- Decent MegaPix (3 MP)
- Big 2" color display

The bad:
- Even in brigh indoor lighting, subjects are dark and difficult to
site in regular-to-bright indoor lighting.
- Flash does seem to wash images
- Flash defaults to *off* every time the camera is turned on, instead
of remembering the last setting
- Pix generally look blurry, but this could be due to poor handling
of low light
- The GUI to preview and the take pix is very poor, although my 4 YO
daughter did figure it out very quickly
- The "OK" (shutter) button is difficult to press, which causes extra
camera shake when taking pictures.

The fixable:
- take pix in high light conditions to avoid disappointment
- Poor color "bluish hugh" in "auto" setting is poor, but setting it
to "sunlight" setting fixes up most color issues of this type

Sad indeed -- there just may not *be* any good camera choices for young and talented children photographers at this time... just the toy ones that make believe they're usable, but which will fall short of kids' expectations when they see blurry unprintable images.

My daughter really wanted the "hello kitty camera" for Christmas, (unlike the cheaper one this one can at least hold plenty of pics via a memory card). But if it is fun photography they really want to do, they will get more enjoyment from a normal digital camera.

This camera has some very poor features for the price. 1) The flash always defaults to "off"; you have to reset it every time you turn the camera on if you want automatic flash. 2)The menu is not intuitive. My son got a Kodak for $30 less, and both children found the Kodak much easier to use. 3) The software is not intuitive; they still have to do a regular file import to modify a picture, rather then the Hello Kitty software doing a direct picture or camera import. 4)The only way to charge the battery is a USB cable, it doesn't take shelf batteries. 5)Very poor lens; any other 3-4 megapixel camera takes much better pictures.

The Hello Kitty software is fun, but I think you could find some enjoyable kids scrapbooking software to put with a regular camera and have a much better package.

First off, I must say our outdoor pictures are really great. Surprisingly clear, lovely pictures. Indoors, however, we had to find the right distance from an object to take a pretty good picture. Too close and it wasn't focused very well and the flash was waaay too bright, too far and the picture was dark. (Not an easy task for a 5 year old.) We also don't like that the flash turns off when the camera is turned off. Our biggest issue though is the battery. It can only be charged through the computer (so much for taking it on vacation) and a 12 hour charge keeps it working for only 2-3 hours, at which point it needs another all day/night charge. We're taking it back. I agree with the previous posters...there should be a better "real" camera for young children!

I got both Hello Kitty cameras for my two girls 5 and 9. Not worth it. Had to reset settings each time and battery ran out fast. And the picture quality was not great at all. My kids got frustrated. I gave them one of my old digital cameras and they have been fine ever since. Don't waste your money.

I bought this camera to take prom pictures and it broke the very same day I bought it! The screen completely froze, I had to keep resetting it... Just a waste of time and money... NOT to mention the fact that I got ZERO prom pictures of my son's big day.. Talk about being upset!!! It's a cute piece of metal, but for over $100+ dollars you'd be better off buying a box of tin foil...

To make matters worse, less than 24 hours later Toys-R-Us would not take it back because they claimed the item had "too many returns" and they were making people return them to the manufacturer! They said it's the highest return they've had on any camera....

I can't believe this company gets away with selling these junk cameras! To date, this company has not made one reliable camera...

I quickly found that its resolution was not spectacular and its flash is erratic, at best. The only way to get decent pictures is to depend on natural light, or else it'll be too bright or too dark. Most pictures end up being pixelated at even the highest resolution, and a few months after I started using it, I found I had to reset it each time I wanted to turn it on. Not very reliable, but maybe a good starter camera for someone else.

My daughter, 9, got this camera as a christmas gift. She was so excited and wanted to try it out right away. We followed the instructions and charged it through the USB port on the computer, not convenient. When we turned the camera on the Hello Kitty Logo came up and then the screen went black. The camera would not take pictures, the menue would not come up, and we could not turn the item off, it simple locked up. We have tried to reset the camera and every suggestion the company (Spectra) gave us. I have a verry disappointed little girl. This is a piece of JUNK! Do noy buy it!

Great Camera, Very easy to download pictures as the camera can be enable to act as an external hardrive once your are done downloading the picture you can enable it to be a high quality Web Camera for online video webchat with your favorite instant messenger client.
Then when you are going out is very small and easy to carry with.

I have had this camera for a year and I love it! I am an adult Hello Kitty fan and this camera is not just for kids. It takes beautiful pictures and is very easy to use. The software is very fun. The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is because it needs a lot of light to take indoor pictures which can be kind of annoying, but for the price it is a steal!