By: Judy Tiabji

If you’re looking to buy a digital camera for your child or children, you have to know how your kid is going to use it. Is she or he the type of child who messes with crayons, spending days on a portrait of Harry Potter or Dora the Explorer? If so, then a digital SLR camera is going to allow your child the room to expand and discover the artistic side of photography. If, however, your child is more inclined to use a digital camera to capture memories, it's a point and shoot digital camera that would be most appropriate.

The major camera manufacturers, such as Nikon, Canon, Olympus and Minolta produce high-quality cameras that would be appropriate for long-term use by an artistically inclined child and future photo hobbyist, but many of these are advanced pieces of machinery with a steep learning curve, and not appropriate for children under the age of 9.

Other companies, such as Sony, specialize in entry-level digital cameras (most of them, point and shoots) that are appropriate for every day use, and for children who are younger, and that’s my focus in this article.

Point and shoot digital cameras are less complicated, and if your budding shutterbug is a bit younger, they won’t have as steep a learning curve as the more advanced SLR models. The trade-off is that you won’t have as many features, but it’s a nice starting point. Here are a number of models available, with a couple of thoughts on usability, function, and performance.

Fisher Price Kid-Tough
Fisher Price is a manufacturer that knows children, and this comes for the rough and tumble world of the post-toddler. The price tag is right (around $70, depending on the retailer), you’ve got your choice of blue or pink, and the controls are easy to use. The image quality is a standard 640x480, and it takes AA batteries.

Jazz Underwater Digital Camera
There’s not much more exciting to a little one than getting a vision of the world under the sea! This digital camera can go underwater to depths of 9 feet, has video capabilities and a flash. Unfortunately, the image quality is 1.3 mega-pixels, so this is really only appropriate for a really young photographer. This camera takes AA batteries.

Kidzoom Multimedia Digital Camera
This award-winning offering from Kidzoom is functional, large, and perfect for any children from four years up. You can also hook it up to your TV or computer, and it comes with simple-to-use editing software. There’s 16MB of internal memory, a 1.8inch LCD display, and is capable of video. Powered by 4 AA batteries.

Digital World Kids Digital Camera
This is a water-resistant digital camera that’s great for camping trips and other excursions where you and your child might find yourself in contact with Mother Nature and other creatures. There’s a time-lapse sequence mode which can produce some unique effects, and there’s a strap that’s specially designed so the child can hang it from a tree. There’s 32MB of onboard memory, a USB slot and cable, and takes 3 AAA batteries. The suggested retail price is $100.