What Kids Love
The funky designs on both the pink and blue Kid Tough Digital cameras are a hit, as are the cute sound effects it makes when powering on and taking a photo. A dual-eye view-finder (similar to binoculars) is great for kids who don’t yet know how to close one eye. For some reason, kids seem to prefer the traditional viewfinder over the built-in LCD screen when lining up a photo.
What You Won't Love
Photo Quality. The Kid Tough photo quality is very poor on the low setting and mediocre on the high res setting. This is the camera to get for the child who loves taking photos, but doesn’t care what the photos really look like. My two-year-old takes pictures of everything from his baby sister to the table leg. He looks back and can recognize people and things, but he’s not looking for a keepsake.
LCD Viewfinder.The response of the LCD viewfinder is sluggish. Younger children will find this frustrating, as will older kids who are taking pictures of anything that moves. By the time the shutter is triggered, the subject has moved off to another location.
Storage. The Kid Tough Digital Camera holds about 60 pictures on the low resolution setting and 20 on the high res. It’s easy for your kids to zip through the memory and come to you for help downloading (or deleting) the pictures. There is a slot for a memory card, but it may not be worth the extra expense for this level of picture quality.
Flash. There is no way to turn the flash on and off. Small kids won’t care, but close-up shots with the flash end up with a washed out look.
The Bottom Line
The Fisher-Price Kid-Tough digital camera is a toy as much as anything else. The simple features make it a nice introduction to photography, but also mean it may quickly be outgrown. This is a nice starter camera for a young child. It’s a good way to start to teach the very basics of taking a picture (point and shoot) and also how to treat a camera. If your child is already into taking pictures, you might want to opt for a more fragile, but higher photo quality camera.
Specs as stated by the manufacturer:
- Built-in auto flash
- 1.6” color LCD
- 8 MB built-in memory that stores up to 60 pictures (depending on resolution)
- SD memory card slot for increased storage capacity (SD card sold separately)
- Includes 1.3 interpolated Mega Pixels or 640 x 480 resolution for 4" x 6" prints
