Playskool Showcam 2-in-1 Digital Camera and Projector (Gray)

As a wedding photographer I have my DSLR out a lot, I take a bunch of pictures of my kids and since I am on my 3rd pregnancy my son who just turned 4 has expressed interest in using a REAL camera and taking pictures of "the baby". With his birthday coming up my husband and I started talking about finding him a camera so he can take pictures himself. I started researching kid tough camera's and was very disppointed that the only one that had more then just 2 or 3 MP was one for older kids (around 12 or so). One night while searching I came across this camera. My son was watching me look at camera's and immedetily started asking for THIS camera. He said it looked like Mommy's camera. After reading the features on it (I was looking for a large shutter button that he would be able to work easily) I found I really liked this camera too. After reading many reviews and a website that compared the top kids camera's we decided this was the one for sure we wanted to go with. It arrived 2 weeks before his birthday I could hardly wait to give it to him!AS soon as he opened it his jaw dropped and he said "My CAMERA!!!!!!!!!!!" since I had to play with it the night we got it we didn't have to wait to put batteries in and I didn't have to play with it before him allowing him to just take it out of the box and start shooting. He didn't even want me to show him how! He figured it out on his own, at first he would move to fast to get a decent picture, but soon learned to slow down a little more and frame it up. He also LOVES the silly feature, he's big into pirates and there is a pirate one in there he loves. One of his favorite things is being able to project the pictures on the wall, some of the silly features even include music and dancing and he and his younger sister love to play them over and over on the wall. Because he loves this camera so much I think it's worth the money!So what about the quality of the pictures? Well I had to really come to terms with the fact that it was such a low quality image. That being said, again I'm a wedding photographer, I am VERY picky about quality. From what I've been able to find on it it's about a 2mp camera so basically the same as my old cell phone camera that I used often when it was to much work to break out the pro camera. Are the picture's printable at that size? Eh no not really, I mean you COULD make very small print but it would be pixelated. Does this mean my son minds? No, to be honest most of his pictures are either blurry from moving to much or of the walls, carpet and toys (for some reason he was very fascinated with taking pictures of the carpet....) Indoors in a darker room it does have trouble. Our living room is not the brightest but when we opened the curtains to the two large window's and opened the front door it allowed enough light to at least help a lot. Outside the camera preformed very well even on a cloudy day, at this age my son could care less about quality then the fact that he is has his OWN camera that looks like mommy's and allows him to take pictures. I read another review that said that their son was discouraged because the pictures came out a big blurry blob, he honestly doesn't notice that. Not at this age, this is meant to be a learning toy and as I said earlier he figured out on his own that he had better results if he stood still while taking the picture. He also figured out that sometimes he was just simply to close to the subject and would back up, re compose and take another picture.This camera does not have a flash, at first I was a tad bummed about that but then again I detest on camera flash anyway so why does it matter? I have started teaching him that if it's dark in the room he can help get better pictures by adding more light to the room. At this point that is possible, it won't always be but if he gets serious about photography when he gets older then by golly he will learn about lower apertures and all that stuff. So while at first I was thinking a flash would be nice I've quickly decided it's not necessary for his age and it would probably just end up either blinding one of us or breaking to easily.This camera is rugged, within an hour of opening it he dropped it down the stairs (carpeted) and it bounced hard on each step then hit the side of the couch at the bottom. He also took it outside the day he got it and took pictures of the dogs and sand box.... So it got sand on it but it easily wiped clean. One thing to note is the big thing in the front that looks like it's a lens, it's not. That is the projector. The lens is actually the little tiny hold above the word playskool so if the kid gets finger smudges or what not on the big front lens looking thing it will not effect the picture quality because that is just the projector.Quality of the projector, I've read mixed reviews on this thing. Again it's a child's toy, they don't care if there are lines or what not on the image. It does need to be fairly dark in the room for you to see a good clear picture, but not pitch black. We were able to turn off the lights in our living room and still leave the curtains open and he learned to project it on a wall that was shadowed for best results. It is a brighter image the closer you are to the wall but it still looks really good from about 5 ft away. My son also likes to project it onto the ceiling because it looks like he's dancing on the ceiling. My only comment on this is that if they is playing with the projector for to long the back of the camera does get pretty hot. But that was after he had been using the projector for over 30min non stop. I showed him how hot it got and told him that when it get's hot he needs to turn off the projector and let it cool down for a bit. So now he doesn't let it get to hot before turning off the projector.Long review, but I felt it was needed for those considering this camera. I am so happy with this purchase, even as I'm typing this he is playing with the camera and keeps telling me "I love my camera mommy!" So to see him so grown up with his own camera and loving it to me it's worth it! Don't get hung up on the technical things that most likely won't matter to a child his age.

I gave this product 5 stars not because I love it but because my son loves it. We got it for his sixth birthday yesterday, and he's played with it almost nonstop. He even took it to bed with him. I thought of getting him a camera after he started wanting to borrow mine and had so much fun with it. I hesitated to get this one because of some of the reviews, but really, some people expect too much from a camera for little kids. Yes, the pictures are not top notch, and yes, when projected you see small gridlines, but my kid doesn't notice these things, and he loves the silly picture options and the projector. I don't know how long this will keep his interest, but it was pretty much worth the $40 just to see him get so much joy out of it on his birthday. BTW, I was also concerned it might be too babyish for him. Maybe in a year it will be, that's okay. What toy doesn't a kid grow out of or get tired of? If you're thinking about buying this for any kid six or under, I'd say don't hesitate. It's no SLR, but it's a great starter camera for little kids.

ProsKid friendly & easy to use- this is what sold me on this camera over othersSeems durableMy child enjoys playing with it.ConsDelete button can not be disabled (as far as I know)Picture quality is TERRIBLE. I wasn't expecting much, but really, it is horrendous. I put some of the photos my son took with this on my iPhone to show relatives and they looked terrible even at that size.Display on back is really grainy- again I wasn't expecting much here but it's bad.Projector light is pretty faint and really only usable in a dark, dark room.The product video (from Hasbro) is not an accurate representation of the results you will get with this camera- I feel like that is dishonest and misleading marketing.Would be nice if it had a lens cap of some sort.For a $50 camera I was expecting more. With a little finesse I think this could be a GREAT product. I do hope Playskool continues developing this camera to make it even better. Would I buy it again in its current state? Probably- but only because I can not find a better alternative at this time. It was like picking the best of the worst when shopping for this item.