Vtech - Kidizoom Digital Camera - Blue Reviews

• Great - but some bumps in the road to know about

  
  By AZDMPFDOXCFA9 on 2007-10-05
  Got this camera as a present for my 3-year-old daughter - she loves it! She can switch it on and off by herself and is always asking for '[her] camera' so she can snap a picture. It's also absorbed a few harsh drops without any trouble.
  
  Caveats:
  - Though it's named "Kidizoom", it does not actually have any zoom functionality. (Not that a toddler would know what to do with it!)
  - Don't try to use a miniSD or microSD card with an SD adapter, and MMC cards won't work either - the camera will start up and immediately shut itself down again. A cheap plain SD card does fine - I put in a 256MB SD that I had lying around and, given that the built-in 16MB held well over 100 of her pictures, I'm sure she'll never fill it up.
  - Like many low-end digitals, it doesn't work all that well if lighting is dim, like indoors at night - it needs to be held more still than a toddler can manage. There is a flash, but it will totally bleach out anything taken at toddler-interest range (1-2 ft).
  - Unsurprisingly, leaving the camera tethered to the computer via USB for long periods (like overnight) will kill the batteries stone dead. As other reviews have mentioned, you will lose all the pictures stored in the camera's memory if this happens, which could result in tears - so put in that cheap SD card and set it as the default! Pictures saved there will survive a battery outage.
  - Videos are very low-res, so don't expect to show them on anything bigger than the built-in screen or postage-stamp size on a computer's media player. The microphone also records at a rather low volume.
  
  4 AA rechargeables and the above-mentioned 256MB SD card later, my daughter is very pleased with her birthday present. I suspect she'll be using this camera for years!
  
  

• Great for children to explore their world....Awesome!!! Better than Fisher Price!!

  
  By A9GE60X06K3QH on 2007-09-01
  We returned Fisher Price FP3 Players (which are garbage) we bought our 4 y/o twin girls for two of these! The reviews for this are better than the Fisher Price Kid Tough and since we were already burned by the FP3 players, wanted to stay far away from FP, we chose the Vtech. We are so glad we did.
  
  The controls are easy (one girl figured everything out in less than a half hour). It does video with voice, pics and has simple games. Right after buying these, we went to a wildlife park in the area. It is great to see what the kids think are important for pictures in our world. It's great watching them be creative with these.
  
  Picture quality is not too bad for who this is designed for. Hooking up to the computer is a piece of cake! It will be great to throw all the pics of their world to CD's for them to see when they're older. The girls took great pics of themselves.
  
  This is Highly Recommended!!! If you're torn between Fisher Price and Vtech, I'd select the Vtech over again!
  
  

• Excellent camera for your toddler

  
  By A1X4PR4PTRGGHD on 2007-08-29
  I got this camera for my 2 year old, in an attempt to keep her away from MY camera. It's a great little camera. It has a color LCD on the back so she can review her photos, a flash with three settings (on, off, auto) (which, in on and auto, can bleach things out as she holds the camera about 1 foot away from her subject), takes video (the sound is of poor quality unless you are right in front of the camera or the one holding the camera). The images are obviously of low quality as it's a kid's camera so if you want this for an older child so they can print out their fabulous vacation photos you will be disappointed. It's about the same quality as a cell phone camera. That said, the subject must also stay still and the person holding the camera needs to hold it stead. However, my two year old has turned out a number of good pictures, so an older kid should have no problem. I liked that the camera did video and took photos. It also has some editing capabilities - such as adding funny hats and borders to your photos right there in the camera. I haven't used the software with it to do anything, again, as it's just for my two year old, so I can't speak to it. But it's durable (she's thrown and dropped it a number of times), she's got about 200+ photos and a couple of videos on it and it still has room for more images, and the batteries seem to last a decent amount of time. It also had an auto shut off features, which is great. All in all, an excellent buy.
  
  

• Perfect "starter" camera for little ones

  
  By A3C7MGYLZ7REYL on 2007-11-13
  My 3 year old received this camera as a birthday gift and LOVES IT. That, in and of itself, makes the camera worth 5 stars. She is only able to turn it on and take pictures right now, but she is learning to go back and view previous pictures now. It is pretty easy. She has dropped it on several occasions and you cannot even see a mark where it hit the ground.
  
  The cool thing for me is that when I go back and look at her pictures on the computer, I get a "glimpse" into her world... what she looks at and is interested in from her perspective. I love being able to see the world through her eyes!
  
  I agree with previous reviewers:
  
  - the picture quality is low
  
  - pictures can turn out blurry if the camera isn't held steady
  
  - pictures are "washed out" if the flash is used at a very close distance. I will say that you can change the flash settings and turn the flash off (which I don't think is a feature of other kid cameras), so I'll be teaching her how to do that when she is a little older and can grasp when to use a flash and when to turn it off
  
  - You WILL lose all the pictures when the batteries die if you don't use an SD card and set it as the default. An SD card is a must!
  
  Overall, this is a KID camera. It is a TOY. I do wish the picture quality was a little better, but have enjoyed watching my daughter's delight and independence with this camera. I'm pleased with the overall product.
  
  

• My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE this toy!

  
  By A2UM4TB7PQYL7U on 2007-09-02
  I bought this for my son's 3rd birthday, and he has a blast with it. I only had to explain once how to use it, and he was off taking photos with no problem. His "action shots" come out blurry, but the stills look great. I haven't printed off any pictures yet, but we did hook the camera up to our 40 in TV and the images were great! My kids love the special editing tools, especially the one where they can distort the image. I have never seen them laugh so hard!!
  So far the battery life seems great. The internal memory holds plenty of pictures, but I like the fact I can also use a memory card. We haven't done much with the movie making feature, my son prefers to take pictures.
  Obviously this is a kids camera, so the quality isn't as great as my camera, but it is ssssooo much fun. My 7 year old son, and 10 year old niece love this camera too. Worth every penny!!!!!
  
  
• Great gift for little ones
  By A2I7H7Y9P7W1DS on 2007-10-21
  We got this for our son for his 3rd birthday, and it's fantastic! After reading the reviews of the Fisher Price kid's digital camera, I started looking at this one. It has some great, fun features and is really easy to use. I especially like the frames and stamps you can add to photos either before or after you take the picture. "Adult" digital cameras should all have these features! As for our son, it took a little time to get him to understand how to use the basic features, but he's now a budding photographer.
  
  
• Good Stuff
  By AS2VIIR21YTEL on 2007-09-23
  My four year old daughter loves this camera. The pictures are only fair and I'm on my second video cable from camera to the tv. I know it isn't user error because other things work. Still, My kid really loves it and it is better than the Fisher Price camera. Remember, If you get it and you are using the memory in the camera you must lay your pictures off before the battery runs out...I found out the hard way...tears and all.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Awesome product!!
  By A3SKW4BTJZSSN5 on 2007-10-05
  Bought this camera for my daughter's 5th birthday...she had been asking for a "real" camera like Mom's and Dad's. Definitely worth the money. I haven't even gotten into all the photo editing and software included but the instant gratification alone is worth it. She documented our entire family vacation - the camera holds many, many pictures! A great buy...highly recommended.
  
  
• See for yourself
  By AZKS3SCI552CY on 2008-01-17
  Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3PGSVSXYZZV5M This is actual video that I shot in a very well lit room. This is the BEST video I have ever gotten from the camera. The photos are about the same quality.
  I would be happy with the camera as a toy if I hadn't paid $85 for it!
  I would say it is worth about $20-$25, but even my 4 year old think the pictures and videos stink.
  
  
• Great Camera for Kids under 6-7
  By A1RXLVH6OCQN5C on 2007-11-26
  Remember this is a KIDS camera...
  
  Yes I do like the camera we got for our 4 yr old daughter. Target have them for $49.99 with the case included.
  
  It takes pictures/videos, not the highest qualitly, and the flash is not great inside. It has some simple games and activities which are cool, and you can edit photos - really super tough, Our 20 month old son gives it heaps.
  
  I guess the quality of photos is equivalent to a cell phone with photo capabilities, good and possible printable, but most fun to plug it into the tv and see what the kids have been looking at.
  
  The only major problem I have with it is that the viewscreen doesn't quite align and if you point it at say a face, you might cut off the top of the head, (might just be our camera) but still a good buy and it will last for ages.
  
  Remember to copy off the photos before the battery runs out or you will lose them.
  
  Great buy would Recommend and I have it on my christmas lists for my nieces!
  
  
• Great product
  By A18P5K66W04KCM on 2007-11-27
  My 6 year old son loves this camera. He has been interested in taking pictures for a while, but we only let him use our good digital camera under close supervision. This camera gives him everything he wants, including videos and picture manipulations (like frames, stamps, distortions, and animations). The camera is very durable, and he takes it with him everywhere. The one thing I would recommend to everyone is purchasing an SD card to go along with this camera. The SD card makes the picture and video storage permanent compared to the on-board memory.
  
  
• Was great while it worked.
  By A2XVOA9AT009GN on 2007-11-26
  My 6 year old son loved this and took a lot of great photos, but then it just went dead after about 2 weeks. There was no accident and changing the batteries didn't do anything. My son is now very disappointed and we are looking for another camera.
  
  
• Don't do it
  By A3BBK6FZWSRU0H on 2008-05-09
  My kids received this as a Christmas present. I knew the pictures wouldn't be great, but I at least expected you could see the people in the pictures. They really are bad and the flash is even worse. I was highly disappointed in this camera. They'd have been better off with a cheap real camera that even if they broke it we could just replace for as much as this one costs. You also have to use a screw driver to get into the memory card if you want to get it out and it's in the same place as half of the batteries. Our screw was stripped quickly and it is already worthless than 3 months after getting it. They can pretend with it, but don't expect pictures that will even print wallet sized.
  
  
• Picture NOT Perfect
  By A31AT8G0X5SZ1S on 2007-12-10
  It would be a great product if the picture / video quality was better. My 4 year old son has used my camera and has taken some good pictures. I thought this would be a perfect Christmas gift. I should have taken a chance with a real digital camera and see how long it would have lasted. At least he can have some fun until I find a better one.
  
  
• Poor way to spend your money!
  By A2RL7J281Q0BUB on 2007-12-26
  I bought this item for my 5&7 year old boys who love using mommy & Daddy's cameras. This is the biggest piece of junk. When you look through the view finder the picture is centered, but when you take the picture half the picture is cut off! It was very frustrating to the kids and the parents. Let's not talk about quality. The quality is less than poor. The pictures are grainy, fuzzy and out of focus(no matter what lighting situation). My kids were looking forward to downloading the pictures to the computer to print them off, but they are so grainy it's not worth the money or effort. This may be a good toy for a younger child, but I DO NOT recommend for older kids. POOR CHOICE! Put your money towards a cheap real digital camera!
  
  
• Terrible Pictures
  By AVRUQPSM0ULFG on 2008-05-27
  My 4 year old daughter received this camera for Christmas. While it is easy for her to use and very durable, the pictures are just TERRIBLE. The quality and the focus is awful. It is too bad, because I really enjoy seeing what she thinks is important to take a picture of -- but barely any of them are of good enough quality to save or print. I'd rather buy a slightly better, but less durable camera and just teach her to be careful. I almost never write reviews, but the functionality of this camera is such a disappointment, I felt I needed to let people know.
  
  
• Great product on the outside... lousy camera in the inside
  By A1MVQ4QBSOABIH on 2007-12-26
  We bought this gift as a christmas gift for our 4 year old, and while the product is very nice in the outside for the kids - nice colours, good grip, easy to use, nice buttons, good design- the quality of the pictures is very bad, especially if you are looking to create your kid first album. The vast majority of the pictures comes white... and those that are not white have a very lousy quality image. Indeed a cellphone camera makes a better job. I assume VTech might improve the megapixel for the next camera, but in the meantime I would not recommend you to buy this camera. For 1/3 of the cost (currently at 70), you can buy a digital camera from CVS that makes a better job than this one.
  
  
• Pretty much worthless.
  By A2VI2H32PYP85G on 2008-01-02
  For Christmas, I purchased a Kidizoom Digital Camera for my 3.5 year old son. So far my son has taken over 400 photos with it. And out of those 400 photos, less than 10 are good enough to keep. I am EXTREMELY disappointed in this camera. It is fairly easy for him to use, but he can not hold it still enough to get pictures that aren't blurry.
  
  I am realistic in the fact that I know the pictures are going to be very low quality, but if I would have known the pictures would be pretty much unrecognizable, I would never have spent the $50 on this camera.
  
  The most frustrating part for me is the fact that I cannot return it because the packaging had to be completely destroyed to get the camera out. And I'm honestly considering boycotting all Vtech toys as I am NOT happy with this kind of quality.
  
  
  
• amazing
  By A72KMWIDLRA85 on 2007-12-04
  wow. what a camera. you can take pictures, make a video, watch them on the computer or the tv. my husband has the new flip cam and this does the same thing. you can also photo edit and add frames to pictures and cool effects. got 2, one for each of my kids and they love it. i love it.
  
  
• Great first camera for kids
  By A3T0SJU9ZNKX00 on 2007-12-17
  I bought this camera for my 6 year old nephew and he loves it. His favorite feature is being able to add the goofy effects to the picture when he's taking it. I was definitely surprised by how many features this camera had and how easy it was to use. I was a little apprehensive to purchase it at first since it's rated for 3+, I didn't want it to be a kiddy camera but one that he felt was more "grown-up" ~ that's definitely what we got. He loves the fact that he can take pictures and see them like his parents camera does. I would highly recommend this camera to kids ages 3 to 10.
  
  
• This was a big hit Christmas morning!
  By A1DG72GE5YFID4 on 2007-12-25
  My 4-year-old daughter wanted a camera for Christmas so after reading reviews for kid and adult cameras, I decided on this one. She LOVES it. She can already work most of the controls and plug it in to the TV without help and has had a ball all day taking pictures of her little sister in funny ears. The picture quality is not that great but I didn't expect professional quality photos from a kid's toy so that is just not a big deal for me. The photos are about the same as what you would get from a camera phone. It seems incredibly durable which is why I chose it over a regular adult camera. She can get one of those in a few years when she is old enough to take good care it but for now, this one is perfect for our needs. We did not need a video card really. She can hold about 100 photos in the camera as is so we just taught her how to delete the ones she doesn't want. We are very happy with the V-Tech camera!
  
  
• Not a camera to take real pictures with
  By A218BBJQV9CYD8 on 2008-01-06
  I bought 2!! of these cameras for 3 year old daughters for Christmas. They love to take pictures with disposable cameras so I thought this would be a great gift. However, it does not take good pictures at all! If the subject is too close, the image is bleached out. If moving, it is blurry. Out of 100 pictures, none turned out. I even tried taking pictures with it. It took a great amount of skill (and completely still object) to turn out a not-so-great picture. Save your money and buy a disposable camera that can take pictures you can actually develop.
  
  
• Hope that yours doesnt break... It takes 4+ months to get a replacement from VTECH!
  By A1NATQAMTYV3UB on 2008-04-02
  My 3 year old son received this as a christmas gift.It broke... I mean broke (whole thing shut down) several hrs later. Mailed it back to VTECH and we STILL have not received the replacement... seems they have been out of restock inventory for more than 3 months... funny since if you walk into any Target or Walmart in the country, you will find it on their shelves.
  
  I would not recommend this product based on the lousy customer service from VTECH.
  
  
• Great camera for toddlers
  By A24SXYF19FS6V5 on 2007-12-17
  Just bought this camera for my 3 year old daughter. She loves it! I saw that some of the reviews mention poor picture quality but I'm not sure what they were expecting from the 640X480 resolution camera. I think the picture quality is pretty good for this type of camera that is really just for little kids to have fun taking pictures. It also has some really neat backgrounds, stamps, and other editing that you can do. There are also 3 games in the camera and my daughter had fun playing the matching game where they give you about 8 objects (flowers, stars, rainbows, etc) that you have to turn over and try to match. You can also take videos with sound, again not great resolution, but it is still a lot of fun for a little kid. It has 16 MB of built in memory so you really don't even need a memory card since it will already hold about 200 pictures with the built in memory. It seems to be built really well and most of all it is very easy to use. Highly recommended as long as you are not worried printing high quality pictures and want a camera that is just fun!
  
  
• Camera Started Smoking on Day One
  By A2I8M6OW3CXJ6F on 2007-12-25
  I am a photographer myself and researched this camera fully before buying it for my two young children. I never expected quality photos, but figured the kids would enjoy taking photos with it like Dad. It had the added benefit of being durable, or so I thought. I bought two of these and after putting the batteries in each one, noticed that one of the cameras grew very hot. I quickly opened the battery compartments to check the batteries. I double-checked the polarity of the batteries and made sure I placed them into the camera correctly. I then noticed smoke coming from the camera, and I quickly shook the batteries out. The batteries burned my hand to touch them. I was using brand new brand-name alkaline batteries, placed in the camera correctly. The fact that the camera grew so hot within 30 seconds and started to smoke makes me very concerned what would have happened had I not noticed the problem and handed the camera to my child. It appeared that the camera was shipped with a short in the circuitry. Now, I don't want to bash the camera itself, but I do want to make parents aware of such a quality issue in this camera. Be sure to supervise your children and never let them change batteries themselves (which you should never do anyways). I'm sure my situation is a rare one, but it happened nonetheless. I'm disappointed in V-tech for what could have endangered a child. And also, be aware that the diagram displaying how the batteries should be inserted into the camera is very tiny and hard to read on the camera itself. This is also a bad oversight by V-tech as inserting the batteries incorrectly could cause battery leakage and possible burns. A clearer diagram should be on the camera.
  
  
• Best Children's Digital Camera
  By A2X27PB8FI7WHS on 2008-07-21
  My daughter received two digital cameras for her birthday. Both were the two that I had researched and found to be decent. This one and the Fisher Price one. The FP is garbage.. it is difficult to use and the screen resolution is awful! This Vtech one is far more durable and easy to use and takes beautiful pictures by comparison. The FP one the child has to stay absolutely still to take the picture otherwise it blurs, but this one takes pictures of moving objects aswell. Of course it is a childrens camera so it is not pristine quality but it is the best camera for a pre-schooler by far! It also has cute face covers and fun software and camera case. Great gift!
  
  
• Excellent for 3.5 year olds! Fun on many levels
  By AEH4QES0NAK79 on 2007-12-14
  My twins have a blast with their new Kidizooms. Making funny faces with the special effects, adding their voices to the photos, seeing their pictures projected onto the large screen TV, taking photos at special events alongside their parents... When they're not taking pics, the three educational simple games keep them entertained. Yes, the flash is a tad strong, but the kids learn to take pics from 2-4 feet and all is well. It is very well built and survives drops onto hardwood floors. Batteries last a relatively long time - drained half way after a week of moderate use. Pics are ok quality ... but that's fine - this is more of a toy than a camera where they're going to be printing.
  
  
• Kidsize creative fun
  By A3618YL60PX7YD on 2008-02-04
  I bought this for my 7 year old son. He figured out the controls without reading any documentation, so user the interface gets 5 stars. He was shooting pictures and videos of himself and of his younger sister in no time. It also comes with cute editing features, like super imposing a pig nose ontop of a person's nose and putting curtains on the side of the picture to frame it. The flash does white wash the picture a bit and the picture quality is not the greatest in low light situations. I would definitely recommend rechargeable batteries and a cheap SD card. I toyed with getting him a real (not kids) camera but couldn't find any for under [...]. I also didn't want to take the risk of him or his sister dropping it by accident. Overall, I am pleased with the product.
  
  
• Great Camera for a 6 year old. Maybe even a little older
  By AHBCZAZCPDPZG on 2008-03-24
  I bought this camera for a recent trip to Disney and Sea World and it delivered. I only had to show my 6 year old son a few of the cooler features on the camera and he was off to the races with it and would not let it out of his site. The camera has a few games on it as well which are very basic but are fun to play with for a few minutes. The most important thing I can tell you about the camera is how much better it is than the fisher price model. The VTech beats it hands down in all categories. We own them both and the FP is simply awful. The terrible screen on the FP when combined with the poor picture quality makes the FP nearly worthless. The VTech is worth every cent (over the price of the FP). That being said, the VTech is a little pricy. It made me consider buying a 'real' low end digital camera to replace the FP, but after watching him drop the VTech at Disney more than once I know that I made the right decision.
  
  
• Great fun for the kids!
  By AWX8K9JXI0KG1 on 2008-04-07
  Like some others, we wanted to get our 4-year-old daughter a camera to keep her from asking to use ours. Little did we know how much we would love her pictures! She's having a great time with it, has mastered all the controls/buttons, and has gotten some really great shots too.
  
  We haven't printed or downloaded any photos yet, but the picture quality wasn't terribly important to us. The camera runs on 4 AA batteries (we'll be getting rechargeable batteries for this!) and she inherited one of our smaller SD memory cards for her camera. Batteries & SD card are accessed with a screwdriver - a bit of a hassle, but part of the kid-proofing.
  
  Sound effects are fun, buttons& toggle easy to use, and the camera is a nice size for little hands.
  
  The only thing we don't like about the camera is the display. We're accustomed to lining up a shot with the display screen on our camera, not the viewfinder. The display on the Kidizoom has a significant lag, you have to hold it very still for a few seconds until it catches up with the image in front of it.
  On the plus side, the two-window viewfinder on the Kidizoom is pretty cool.
  
  I'd definitely recommend this camera for children ages 3-7+!
  
  

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