Your Child, Her Camera, and Extras

Purchasing a digital camera for your child is a great investment. Children love to capture moments just like adults do and buying them a digital camera gives them the opportunity to be responsible for something and explore the world of photography. But how many extras should you get your child with their digital camera? What else will they need to make sure that the camera lasts? Or will they need more space to hold more pictures? There are a log of extra things you can get your child with their digital camera. Let’s look at a few of them.

Memory Cards/ Memory Sticks

Many parents buy their children digital cameras and think that the space on the camera is enough for the amount of pictures they will take. Most kid cameras come with about 16MB of memory (if that) and if you know cameras at all you know that this isn’t a lot of space. Let’s be realistic, kids are going to take way more pictures than we probably will, so instead of getting the camera, going home and have your child fill up the memory in a day, spend the extra money and get them a memory stick or memory card. Look at it as buying film for the old traditional cameras. It’s a good investment and one you will eventually go back for if you don’t do it the first time around. Save yourself some time and just buy it with the camera.

Camera Case

One of the biggest mistakes that parents make when purchasing a digital camera is not purchasing a case to go with it. It should be quite obvious why you need one, but in case it isn’t let me shed some light on the subject. Even the most responsible child is going to either drop or hit the camera on something. They are after all still kids. Those things are to be expected. A camera case can prevent some of those nicks and dings of every day use. When they’re not using the camera encourage them to put the camera in the case. The case will help keep the camera protected from potential accidents. Don’t trick yourself into thinking that it’s just not worth the money, because it is.

Screen Protectors

Many high tech digital cameras are sold with screen protectors to help protect the LCD screen. But just because it’s not high tech doesn’t mean you still shouldn’t buy one for your child’s camera. LCD screens are extremely vulnerable to scratches especially with children. I purchased a digital camera and neglected to buy a screen protector for the screen, and now you can barely see the picture because it has been scratched up so much. Some of that also could have been avoided had I also purchased a camera case too. The point being that kids are kids, and if you decided to spend more than $25 on the camera you might want to consider getting something to protect the screen.

Batteries

Chances are the digital camera you decide to buy will run on AA batteries. The best thing to do about batteries is to buy some rechargeable AA and a battery charger. This is going to save you a ton of money. Anyone who has children knows how often things just get “left on.” It’s going to happen, so instead of getting angry about how much money you’re going to have to spend on replacing batteries, just spend the extra money now and get some rechargeable ones with the charger. You’ll be glad you did it.

There are some extras that you don’t necessarily need that you’ll want eventually like printers and photo paper to print pictures on, but those aren’t necessities quite yet. Memory cards, camera cases, screen protectors and rechargeable batteries are extras you should get your child with their digital camera purchase. You’ll spend more money, but it will be worth it in the end.