As someone who likes to spoil my little niece and cousins rotten, I can certainly understand the urge to give children nice stuff. But as cute as little kids can be, they sure are amazingly destructive for their size.
Which brings us to the subject of today’s review, the Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera. Designed for kids age 3 and older, this thing is built to take a beating from any little devil fresh out of their terrible twos.
But how does it truly perform? Read on to find out.
PROS
It’s pretty tough: A look at the several strategically placed screws all around the device shows that the Kids Tough Camera means business. This thing is built like a bunker, has a nice beefy feel and is quite solid overall. The screws are recessed to keep them away from tiny tots’ hands. So is the lens, which helps protect it from the inadvertent drops that are sure to come from a three year old.
Easy to handle: The Kids Tough camera features rubberized grips all over in addition to a healthy amount of grooves for easier handling. It may be built to survive drops, but an ounce of prevention is always worth, well, you know the drill.
Easy to use: Controls are pretty easy to figure out for the little ones. The device keeps it simple by only featuring a few colorful, enlarged buttons, which also makes it easier for kids to press them. Instead of the single viewfinder found in most cameras, the Kid Tough camera has twin viewfinders instead, which is easier for kids to use. Kids also have an option of using the LCD viewfinder if they wish.
CONS
Low resolution: With just 64MB of built-in memory, you pretty much get an idea of how low the resolution is for this camera. In fact, picture quality is the biggest drawback of what otherwise would’ve been a well-designed kids' camera. Images taken at the 0.3 resolution setting are pretty much useless even for Internet viewing. Even photos taken at the max 1.3 megapixel resolution display more pixelation than I would like. Photos taken outdoors are salvageable but indoor photos — which is likely where kids will take most of their images — are pretty much a lost cause. I know it’s supposed to be a camera for kids. But it should at least be able to take decent printable photos.
No flash control: The inability to control when the flash goes off pretty much means you’re at the mercy of the camera’s auto flash system. If it decides to not go off when you need it, well, that’s just tough — and not in a good way.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
The Fisher Price Kid Tough Camera is a classic example of a missed opportunity.
Build-wise, the camera is great, featuring a sturdy, kid-friendly design and controls. But poor image quality makes this more toy than camera, which is sad because it didn’t have to be.
It’s still a neat toy, though, so I’d still recommend it as an educational tool that should teach kids the basics of photo taking and composition. But it could’ve been so much better.
