Of the dozens of 2010 cameras from Canon, which are best suited for your curious child? To find out, I grilled the booth reps at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (see the video posted on CTR’s YouTube channel) in search of an auto-shoot camera that is affordable and powerful. In addition, Canon sent me an A495 to kid test (hence the ratings).
The winner? If you don’t mind the AA batteries, you can’t go wrong with the PowerShot A490 ($110) or A495 ($130), a 10 Megapixel, 3.3x Optical Zoom powered by last year’s DIGIC III Image Processor. The camera’s clear color 2.5-inch LCD makes it fun to review the pictures on screen, and it is easy to toggle between still and movie mode. The camera automatically chooses from 13 predefined shooting situations, using the flash as needed. For $20 more, you can get the A495 which includes an additional scene mode that could complicate things.
If you want all these features, plus rechargeable batteries and a slightly larger preview screen, the Canon PowerShot A3000 ($150) is your best bet. In my book, the rechargeable batteries are worth the extra money. Note that SD card memory is not included in the price, and that you’ll want to budget at least another $14 to $20 for memory (for 4 to 8 GB). In addition, remember that these cameras are NOT toys, and they are not designed to toy specifications. For example, the battery compartment can be easily opened, presenting a possible choking hazard, and we noticed that the batteries tend to fall out when changing the memory card, which some children might do in order to transfer the pictures to a computer. Finally, we noticed lower prices online, so shop around. The bottom line? Young photographers have some powerful new options that can easily become the envy of their Grandparent’s eye. Teaches: creativity, digital photography. Canon USA, Inc.. www.usa.canon.com, $110. Best for ages 6-up.
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or .95%
Easy to use but limited in quality and storage, Disney’s In Scene Video Camera looks like a standard flip camera, that comes with a small tripod, creating your child’s first pocket sized movie making studio. It comes in either boy/girl themes (we reviewed the pink princess model). The camera works with your Windows computer, which is required to charge the battery and download the video. Mac users are out of luck. The $80 kit includes a CD containing a software editing package (Disney Flix) as well as a large blue curtain for movie making. When you aim the camera at the blue screen, you see a checkered background; and this lets you put yourself inside of Disney themed movie sets, with different music and clip art options. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
It looks like the VTech or Fisher-Price camera, and even has facts about photography inventor George Eastman on the packaging, 
but don’t be fooled. This $40 camera is really a poor-quality webcam (from Mars Semiconductor) disguised as a child’s camera. Features include 16MB of internal memory storage and a carrying strap, with molded grips. The camera can hold up to 120 still photos (640×480) or about 50 seconds of silent AVI videos, if you can figure out how to switch the camera into video mode (press the power key twice). The package includes a button cell battery, a USB cable and a 3 inch disk for the webcam mode. We were able to import the photos into Windows, which auto recognized the device as a webcam, but our Macintosh did not recognize camera. Requires 4 “AA” batteries (not included). Please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.