It is certainly true that you do not need to spend a lot of money to get a good digital camera for a child. You can often find special offers that will get you a model with extra features for no more money than a basic model. Looking online for deals and bargains is often a good way to get a camera suitable for an older child of eight years plus as children in this age group will definitely appreciate a more advanced model than younger, pre-school children.
Children in this eight to twelve years age group spend a lot more time thinking about what they want to photograph and setting up their shots - whereas pre-school children are very likely to just snap off hundreds of pictures of anything and everything, just for the fun of doing it!
For older children, a good quality digital camera will be an added resource for their school work, enabling them to add pictures to projects and to create covers for folders, etc. They might want to upload them to a computer to share with friends online or even create their own blog, illustrated with the images they have taken.
Older children will learn how to use the features on their new camera very quickly indeed and whereas you may have to show a younger child how to work all the controls, it is quite likely that an older child will be explaining to you how to get the best out of it within a very short time!
The ideal camera for a child in this pre-teen age group will have some automated features for ease of use, but should have some features with adjustable, manual settings that will enable a child to have fun learning how to create special effects and discovering more about the techniques of digital photography for themselves. However, it is also important that you choose a model that is robust and durable - although a child in this age group might be perfectly capable of operating an adult model, they are still children and the inevitable rough and tumble of their lives may result in breakage or damage due to a knock or dropping the camera if you do not buy a model specifically designed for use by children.
Another point to bear in mind when choosing the camera is the length of time that it can be used before either the batteries run down, or the memory becomes full. With regard to the batteries, choosing good-quality, rechargeable batteries will pay dividends. With regard to memory in the camera, remember that a pre-teen will want to produce better quality images than his younger siblings. This inevitably means larger picture file size, so the amount of storage available is going to be important if the child is to be able to store a good number of images between downloads.
Another aspect of having a digital camera for a pre-teen is the ability to edit their own images. Many cameras come with free editing software that can either be downloaded from the Internet or supplied on a CD which can be uploaded to the home computer. Editing software definitely adds another dimension to the experience and children become very adept at manipulating images to create funny effects like giving the dog a moustache or the cat a 'santa hat'. The process has a serious side too as it can help children develop skills such as spatial awareness, hand-eye coordination and organization.
If you have no experience of buying a camera for a child in this age group, checking one of the online review sites to see what other buyers are saying about the models available is a good place to start. You will find there are many models to choose from and often, sites will tell you which models are 'on sale' at the moment and/or where you can get the very best deals.
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