Discovery Slide and Shoot Digital Camera

I was pretty excited about this one.
A) It’s a camera. And I’m a photo person.
B) It’s a camera geared for the age group of my Zach. Which is nice, his older brother always gets to try everything cool first, so getting this in the mail, charging it up and handing it to him as he headed out the door to walk his dog and saying, “Take a bunch of pictures of Molly while you walk her”, well, that was fun.

PBN has been running a great series of Discovery Channel Store toys for multiple age groups. We’ve always been fans of learning toys around here, so many a purchase for Christmas or birthdays has come from the Discovery Channel Store website.

As for the Discovery Slide and Shoot Digital Camera, it’s a great introductory camera for a kid to have. My son is 9-years old. By design we have tried to keep the kids interested in “kid” things for as long as possible and away from technology type stuff because already, the boys are getting more expensive to shop for.

I set up the software easily, there is nothing challenging to it. I did like the USB cord with it’s sticker warning about not charging the camera until you’ve loaded the software. I’ll admit, I have been known to go full-speed ahead and not follow instructions and might have charged the camera first. That sticker has probably saved more than a few ramrod types like myself some heartache already. (**Though, for my PBN reviews, I try to be a good little consumer and actually read instructions and follow protocol – I’m a suck up like that**)

Software install? Check.
Camera charged and ready? Check.
That's it.

I sent Zach off and running with the handy little camera to do with as he pleased. For him, that’s a novelty, I assure you.
But it’s sturdy.
It’s not overloaded with buttons or command prompts.
It’s on a lanyard, so that he can’t possibly lose it. He is prone to losing things unless they are somehow affixed to his person. So, the whole lanyard aspect of it is the BEST. IDEA. EVER.

The only drawback, which is a superficial one at best, would be the fact that it looks kind of “girly” because there is pink on it. It’s for any kid 7 and up, not just girls, and while Zach could have cared less that it had pink on it, his older brother had to have a jerk kid moment and ask why he was playing with a Barbie toy.

That’s when I grounded him for life and told him he was getting coal for Christmas. But I digress…

Are the photos professional quality? Uh, not even. But is that really the point here? Let’s analyze our target audience, shall we? Way back in the day when hubby and I got married, we put disposable cameras on the tables at the reception for people to snap away. (This was the pre-digital camera era…I know, I am OLD.) One of my little brothers had clearly gotten hold of one of the cameras and taken pictures of some idiotic and bizarre things. So, let’s face it, giving a kid a camera where you can delete all their excess crazy stuff is a good thing.

As for the usable photos, the viewing screen shows photos already taken. Just like my big kahuna camera! So Zach can see if he got the perfect shot of his dog or if she jumped and messed it up.
I walked him through the options available on the software. He was excited at being able to do stuff with his pictures and once I showed him how to navigate his way around, he was quite able to create some things on his own and asked very few questions. (see photo for puppy cuteness!) We have some major plans to do up a 2008 calendar that he can keep in his room.

All in all, a quality and reasonably priced item. At $40, I’m not surprised when I got on the Discovery Channel Store website to order one of these for my niece for Christmas that they were showing they’d be unavailable until the end of February. I guess everybody else had the same great idea! (No, I’m not regifting ours, Zach really likes it)

Definitely a product I would buy or recommend for a kid who is maybe a little hard to buy for. You're getting them a hot, new, techy gadget without the big pricetag.

Sunshine's Rating: