Parents looking to unglue children from TV so, they can be more active will find getting a camera a very rewarding gift that will awaken curiosity and creativity and, may inspire the child to pursue a career in photography!
Even if you're not a parent. If you have nephews or nieces, a toy camera will make for a beautiful birthday present, especially one that is as good as a compact camera.
myFirst Camera 2 is a neat candidate for a children camera because it looks like a toy but it has the functionality of a compact camera. myFirst Camera 2, is effectively, a compact camera disguised as a toy camera with an appealing colorful finish and lego block styling on top.
myFirst Camera 2 has a fixed-focus-free lens, which means the camera lens does not automatically or manually focus; hence the child won't be able to take sharp close-up shots.
To get a sharp image with myFirst Camera 2, the child essentially, has to move the camera away from the subject in order to create enough depth of field. That said, the child will be able to zoom in and zoom out.
There is no optical or digital image stabilization but, myFirst Camera 2 lets the child capture video in 30fps (real time) and, without interpolating or up sizing the image since myFirst Camera 2 has a true 1080p resolution.
myFirst Camera 2 is listed as an 8MP camera, which is 3264 pixels wide x 2448 pixels high. This is not to be confused with standard 4K, which is 3840 pixels wide x 2160 pixels high (8.3MP).
Even though, myFirst Camera 2 appears to have a similar pixels to 4k, myFirst Camera 2 doesn't have the ability to shoot video natively in 16:9 aspect ratio. myFirst Camera 2 can only shoot 1080p video natively in 16:9 aspect ratio.
There is a 1000mAh battery inside myFirst Camera 2 so, no need to replace batteries. Simply connect the included micro USB to a computer USB port or wall USB plug to recharge the battery, which takes 4 hours. When battery is low, a "low battery" message flashes in the centre of the screen.
Since myFirst Camera 2 is a compact camera aimed at children, weight is an important factor. myFirst Camera 2 weighs just 65 grams, which is as light as a tennis ball and has compact dimensions (6cm deep, 10cm long and 6cm tall) perfect for little hands.
There is a micro SD card slot, which supports cards up to 32GB in size and the child can choose from several photo pixel resolution, including 3264 x 2448 pixels (8MP), 2592 x 1944 (5MP) and 2048 x 1536 pixels (3MP).
The date and time can be adjusted from the camera too. The date/time stamp can be disabled or enabled so, it shows on the footage. myFirst Camera 2 supports multiple user interface languages as well, other than English.
A neat child friendly feature is the sound effects. myFirst Camera 2 makes a quirky sound when navigating through the menus and during the shutter press. The sound effect can be turned off and its volume level adjusted too.
There is a self timer function built-in to the myFirst Camera 2 to delay the shutter press activation between 2, 5 and 10 seconds. The child can also set the camera to take multiple shots in succession (up to 3) from a single shutter press.
There is also an interval timer shooting function where the child can set myFirst Camera 2 to automatically press the shutter at various intervals including 2 seconds, 5 seconds and 10 seconds.
Interval timer shooting is a very neat feature that is also integrated in adult cameras for doing still frame time lapses instead of video-based time lapses.
The advantage of doing time lapses with the interval timer is being able to create a video file, using single still frame images which you can later resize, crop and edit in post-production.
While myFirst Camera 2 doesn't have a video time lapse function, the interval timer function gives the parent and child the chance to learn how to use a video editor to process still frames (single images) and/or create a time lapse out of it.
The user control buttons are located on the back and top of the camera where the shutter button is located. The top section with the lego block design provides a grippy surface area for the fingers to grab on to.
The other buttons are located on the backside, next to the 2-inch IPS display (320 x 240 screen resolution), which is similar in size to a dash cam screen. Being an IPS LCD screen, myFirst Camera 2 screen has a natural color reproduction with good viewing angles.
The screen shows several icons in photo mode and video mode. In photo mode, the icons shown include the pixel resolution, battery indicator and the number of photos the micro SD can take.
As you take videos and photos, the photo count decreases, letting the child know when they will be running out of storage space. In video mode, the icons shown are FHD (Full High Definition), battery indicator and recording time.
myFirst Camera 2 also has the same MSDC option you get in digital cameras. MSDC stands for Mass Storage Device Class and it, basically, turns myFirst Camera 2 into a card reader, allowing the child to transfer files to a computer without having to remove the microSD card, which is very convenient. That said, a USB card reader is also included with the camera.
The child will also be able to use myFirst Camera 2 under the rain or under water (up to 3 meters) in a swimming pool, thanks to the included plastic housing that provides myFirst Camera 2 with an iPX8 waterproof rating. A silicone protective sleeve is also provided to cover the camera and make it bump-resistant.