Best Optio for a 5 year old

It's my eldest son's birthday soon and the old Kodak digital compact that he has been using has given up the ghost (mislaid and then found in the garden two weeks later).

He desperately wants a new camera and would really love one like Mummy and Daddy's DSLRs (both Pentax). I don't think he's quite ready for a DSLR yet, although it won't be long, so I've been looking at the Optios.

I'm planning to buy something second hand, as there is a fair chance it may meet a sticky end and would like something straightforward to use, robust and ideally that will use the SD/SDHC cards and rechargeable AA cells that we already have plenty of.

Does anyone have any particular recommendations or would I be better off looking for one of the ruggedised options form Olympus or similar?

Depends what you want to pay but if you really want one that stands a chance of being 5 year old proof - i would suggest the Pentax WG1

Waterproof to 10 m,
Shockproof to 1.5 m,
Coldproof to -10°C,
Crash Proof 100kg
Dust Proof (JIS Class 6)

Best price - around £175.

Alternatively - plenty of older Optios on ebay for little money and could be considered disposable. You can pick up an old 5 mp Optio S10 from around £3 on ebay - and many better ones for less than £10!

So - either go for the WG10 - or buy 12 older ones from ebay and he can have a new one every month

Carl

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No matter how many lenses I have owned - I have always needed just one more

I'm leaning towards this option, as we won't be spending anywhere near £175 on the other kids!

I didn't realise they were that cheap - presumably they're all pretty competent, but for that price, I guess it doesn't really matter!

If you follow this link - you can see the prices some have sold for on ebay recently - absolute bargains for a child - my 8 year old daughter is on her 3rd this year and had 6 last year!
link

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No matter how many lenses I have owned - I have always needed just one more

The WG1 may be waterproof, shockproof and animpressivelistofthingsproof but I guarantee it won't be leftunderahedgeinthegardenandforgottenaboutproof.

I got my daughter an Optio50 for a tenner from ebay, not that good but will do the job until it gets lost. It eats normal batteries for breakfast, but works OK with eneloops.

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You can see some of my photos here if you are so inclined

That's my main concern (pretty much bang on, except that it was a trampoline in our case!).

While it's important to teach kids to look after things well, I'd rather that was a secondary consideration and they had something they can use without too much parental supervision. After all, the object of the exercise is really for them to have a bit of fun taking pictures, not to have an expensive camera to look after and never use.

I've ordered a 5mp Optio from eBay today, so will see how that goes.

The first camera I got for my son (aged 4 at the time) was the Optio E35. I used lithium batteries and it went great guns - one set lasted about 6 months! Now the zoom buttons don't work. Next birthday (8th!) he will be getting an black Optio I-10, cost me £78 brand new. I will see hew he does with it, as he really looked after the old E35 - I made sure he had a good case with it and knew to put it back in there and that he was responsible for looking after it! He also likes using my K7 and the K10 before that! He even took a winning picture with the K10 when he was 3 1/2 - made into a post card!

My youngest (5 next birthday) will be getting his first camera, an Optio E90 so I can use lithium AAs again! That was only £58!

I did think about the W series but discounted in favour of the cheaper E and I series.

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Bodies: K5IIs, K7, MZ5n, LX, MV
Lenses: DA*16-50, DA18-55WR, DA18-135, DAL35, M50 F2, A50 f1.4, FA50 f1.4, DA*50-135, DA55-300, Tamron 70-300, DFA 100 WR Macro, M135 f3.5, Sigma 120-400 APO DG HSM, Tokina 500 f8.0
Flash: Metz 58, Metz 48
Accessories: BG4, Pentax right angle finder, Pentax mirror adaptor lens, O-ME53 Viewfinder Loupe
Auto 110 System: Auto 110, Winder, 18mm, 24mm, 50mm, 70mm, 20-40mm, AF100P, 1.7x telecon

right now cisco flip camcorders are on clearout sales..... I got one for under $60.00 cdn
I got one for my boy and a book... Klutz Tricky video

I also have an old ds2 that is being retired from service, and so will be passed down to him (right now he only borrows it with supervision).

if I were shopping for a camera I would look at 2 Pentax models... the i-10 if it was on sale or an optio wr but lets be honest here at 5 yrs old, even if the kid is responsible for a 5 yr old, the best camera for a kid is the camera you can afford to lose. period......

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Fired many shots. Didn't kill anything.

I bought an Optio E50 for the princely sum of £17, got it today and was quite impressed. It seems suitably straightforward, with familiar ergonomics and is fairly well screwed together. The pictures are better than expected, too.

Actually, for £17, it's amazing. Time will tell how it stands up to use by a 5 year old, though...

I wouldn't worry about a young child handling an Optio - my Grandaughter is a real whizz with her T30.

Mind you, I lent her the X90 at Martin Mere and she did incredibly well with it. She decided that having buttons to press for functions was much quicker and easier than messing about in menus.

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Best regards, John

Having given it a lot of thought I've decided to give my grandson a kiddie camera for his 5th birthday.

He can have a "proper" camera when he's a bit older if he still wants one.

I think that is very sensible; In my case, I'll nearly always be around when he uses it, so can keep an eye on him. If I wasn't (and I have only just got used to the idea of having childern, so the prospect of grand children is a bit mind-blowing!), I'd be tempted to leave a 'proper' camera until he was a bit older.