VTech - Kidizoom Spin & Smile Digital Camera - Pink

by VTech

• Real 2.0 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom, self-timer and 5 included games
• Rotating lens lets you take self portraits or take photos with funny stamps, borders and silly effects
• 256 MB internal memory and SD card slot for memory expansion
• Video recording with sound
• Ships in Certified Frustration-Free Packaging

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.2 x 6.2 x 3.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0050PJJPM
• Item model number: 80-122851
• Manufacturer recommended age: 36 months - 15 years
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,256 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
  • #5 in Toys & Games > Electronics for Kids > Cameras & Camcorders
  • #6 in Toys & Games > Preschool > Pre-Kindergarten Toys > Electronic > Cameras
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (165 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com

Turn your child into the family photographer with Vtech's Kidizoom Spin & Smile Digital Camera. Durable and easy to use, this 2.0 megapixel camera lets kids take and edit photos, record digital video, and play games. Designed for children three and up, the Kidizoom comes with a built-in flash for indoor shooting as well as a twisting lens for easy self-portraits. A variety of wacky frames, stamps, and other effects will keep your budding photographer entertained.

Kidizoom
Spin & Smile Digital Camera

• Ages: Three to eight years
• Requires: Four AA batteries

At a Glance:

• Tough, easy-to-grip camera with 2.0 megapixel resolution
• Includes camera and video modes, photo editor, and five games
• 256 MB of built-in memory
• Lens twists for easy self-portraits
• Editing feature allows children to add frames, stamps, and wacky effects

Fun kids camera is a great learning experience for aspiring photographers. View larger.

Lets you add wacky effects for hours of silly fun. View larger.

Sturdy Design Ideal for Young Photographers

Engineered with children's small hands in mind, the Kidizoom Spin & Smile Digital Camera comes with easy-to-grip, rounded sides and large, intuitive buttons. Kidizoom's sturdy design helps withstand rough handling by young photographers. While not indestructible, this camera stood up to repeated drops on a cement floor during testing.

Kidizoom comes with a twisting lens that flips effortlessly into position as well as a timer, taking the guesswork out of self-portraits and group shots. A zoom wheel activates the 4X digital zoom, while dual viewfinders and a full-color screen make it easy for children to compose pictures.

The camera screen's compact size does make it challenging to predict the photo quality before viewing on a television or computer monitor. Do not expect this 2.0 megapixel camera to take sharp photos of squirmy subjects in low-light conditions.

Zany Special Effects Unleash Creativity

Kidizoom allows your child to add silly hairstyles, wacky distortion, and colorful frames to photos. These can be easily viewed on a computer or television. Parents will need to spend a little time helping younger children find and use the editing features to allow them to fully unleash their creativity. Your child can also record movies with funny cartoon animations and scene-setting frames. A video recorder lets kids record and then distort voices, adding echo effects or robot intonations.

Along with the editing options, five preloaded games--including a photo puzzle, detective game, and germ-fighting adventure--will provide hours of educational entertainment for your child.

Built-In Memory Stores Hundreds of Photos

With 256 megabytes of internal memory, there's room for hundreds of photos or more than 10 minutes of video. The camera also supports up to 2 gigabytes of additional space by adding an SD card (sold separately).

System Requirements

Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7

Mac OS X 10.4 or above

What's in the Box

Kidizoom Spin & Smile Digital Camera, USB Cable, A/V cable, wrist strap, and user's manual.

From the Manufacturer

The possibilities are endless with the The Kidizoom Twist Camera- Pink. Offering 4 major functions-- photography, photo editing, moving making and gaming-- this toy allows your child's imagination to take flight. They can become the family photographer or even take a photo of themselves by using the innovative rotating lens. Your child can also make digital movies with the touch of a button or play 5 cool games right on the camera. For added usability, the Kidizoom Twist Pink connects to a television so your child can view her work or play games on the big screen. PC and Mac compatibiility allows you to connect the camera to your computer for storing and sending photos. Real 2.0 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom, self-timer and 5 included games. Rotating lens lets you take self portraits or take photos with funny stamps, borders and silly effects. 256 MB internal memory and SD card slot for memory expansion. Video recording with sound. PC and Mac compatible in mass storage mode--connect to your computer to store and send photos.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 86 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun right out of the box August 31, 2011

By Joan W. Johnson VINE™ VOICE

Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Durability: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

My 5 yr old grandson was visiting when this camera arrived. We opened the box together, figured out where the "on" button was, and that's all he needed. It's been almost a week, and he just doesn't want to put it down. Obviously, 5 yr olds don't sit down and read the instructions, but the camera is so kid-friendly that he figured out how to take videos and photos and play the games by himself - no instructions necessary. I did show him how to use the special effects on photos, but that took just a minute or two of instructions, and he understood and used that feature perfectly. I'm impressed with the quality of the photos! I attach the camera with the included USB cord, and bring the photos up on my computer for my grandson to see. So far we have not needed to add a memory card, but it's nice that it includes that feature.

I consider this a fun toy, but educational as well. My grandson has learned how to look "in the window" and find what he wants a photo of before snapping the picture -- a lesson in photography and patience. The games are fun, mainly because you move the camera to move the game characters, which is unique.

We now have photos of everything from the cat's tail to the hummingbirds at the window. It's fun to see the world through the eyes of a five year old.

I highly recommend this camera. It is very sturdy, and very, very easy to use right out of the box. I know my grandson will enjoy this camera for many years to come.

77 of 78 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun for kids but with limited image quality November 5, 2011

By erugifog

Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Durability: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

Pros: The Vtech Kidizoom combines in one unit features normally found in several different devices and makes them accessible to kids through a colorful interface and menu system that are easy to use with the back video screen and buttons. The Kidizoom is a still camera, a video camera, a voice recorder and a basic portable gaming system. It has in-camera software that allows kids to add cartoon effects to their images and tweak sound recordings before transferring them to a computer hard drive. With photos, you can do things like add decorative borders and colorful symbols. You can take a picture of a person's face and put it on a cartoon body, for instance. With sound recordings, you can add a few basic distortions (higher/lower pitch, slower, etc.). Kids can have fun with this while manipulating voice recordings. The camera seems fairly robust and able to withstand a normal amount of wear and tear. Both sides of the camera have rubber grips that are easy to hold. The lens can be rotated to point back at the user, making it easier to take self-portraits while composing the image with the back screen. The camera has a pair of viewfinders so kids don't have to close one eye, although the video screen on the back will probably get far more use when composing images. Camera resolution can be manually set to either 2 or 0.3 megapixels, which means your kids won't be clogging up your computer's hard drive with large image files. 2MP may not sound like much, but pictures are large enough to fill a computer monitor's screen (video is much lower resolution, however, and nowhere close to filling the screen). Images, video and sounds can be captured on a small internal storage drive or an SD or SDHC memory card (not included), and the camera has a USB connection port.

Cons: No surprise here, but the camera's image sensor isn't great (think average cell-phone camera picture and video quality). Like other digital cameras, this one does best in bright light (i.e. outside with full sun). In low light (i.e. most indoor situations), image quality is worse and it's easier to wind up with blurry shots. Even with the included flash (which can be manually set to auto, forced flash or no flash), it's difficult to avoid subject-motion blur when shooting a moving subject indoors. Kids will also have to learn to hold the camera still in order to avoid blur due to camera shake; that's true with any camera, but especially one like this that is not capable of using a high shutter speed or high ISO. The included games are played using the back video screen and camera buttons. The games are colorful but fairly basic by the standards of other portable gaming devices such a Nintendo DS or an iPod Touch. Kids who already own such devices will probably find these games to have limited appeal. As you would expect with a toy, this camera is fully automatic, so there are no manual settings for shutter speed, aperture or ISO--not an issue unless you're a shutterbug like me and want to teach your kids about such things.

Not sure if this is a negative, but the camera is somewhat large and not what you'd call a compact. The flip side is the size makes it harder to lose, easier to manipulate and probably harder to break. The camera runs on four AA batteries.

The verdict: The Vtech Kidizoom is a fun, fairly robust camera for kids that will help them get started learning to capture images and video. My 12-year-old daughter has enjoyed putting it through its paces and discovering its features, although kids around that age and older who have a demonstrated interest in photography might be better served by a "real" camera capable of better image quality. The bells and whistles of the in-camera photo editor will allow kids to have some additional fun dressing up their images with colorful cartoon effects. The games on this device are basic and not the strongest selling point but could help kids pass the time in a pinch. All in all, this is a nice toy for the young budding photographer who is not yet ready for a more sophisticated camera.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent "first camera" for kids September 6, 2011

By Ms. Parrothead VINE™ VOICE

Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Durability: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

The first thing I noticed when I took this camera out of the box is the "dual viewfinders" (that is, a lens for each eye) in the past, when my teenagers were younger, they had trouble focusing with a single viewfinder. The camera seems to be very sturdy, and while I have not dropped it on the floor, I believe that it could withstand a fall to the floor. I turned the camera over to my 11 year old and asked her to play around with it and tell me what she thought. After a few minutes she came back into the room and began showing me how she could manipulate the pictures she had taken. She quickly figured out all of the features with no help, but even a younger child (say 6 or 7) could probably figure the features out with a little demonstration. I don't think this is going to replace my daughter's other digital camera, but she did seem to enjoy playing with it, and showing her little cousin how to use the camera (she is 7 and picked it right up) I think this is a great "starter" camera for kids who are old enough for a "real" camera, but not old enough for a more expensive model. This camera is large enough for small hands to hold onto, and sturdy enough to withstand the fall if it is dropped. Overall, I am very pleased with this camera.