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Family Tech: Digital cameras let kids explore photography at reasonable cost

BY LARRY MAGID
Special to The Mercury News
June 4, 2000

CHILDREN love to take pictures. But the cost of film and processing can quickly mount when you put a film camera in the eager hands of your son or daughter, at about 50 cents for each push of the shutter.

I'm pleased to say money is no longer an object when it comes to taking pictures at my house, because we use a digital camera.

True, the camera cost several hundred dollars, but there is no film to buy or develop. The only additional cost is when we use disposable batteries. Rechargeable batteries eliminate even that expense.

It does cost money to print images, as much as $2 in ink and glossy paper to make an 8 x 10 suitable for framing. But we print only a few of the pictures my kids take, and even then, we typically make smaller prints and often use plain paper that costs less than a nickel a sheet.

Before I go on, let me confess I don't usually let my kids wander off with my digital camera. The one I use cost $699 and, frankly, I worry about it getting lost or broken. Still, my kids use it at home, at parties and when we're on vacation.

The one exception was New Year's Eve, when I let my 13-year-old son, Will, take the camera to a millennium party at a friend's house. He also borrowed a Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart P1100 ink jet printer, which has slots for Compact Flash or SmartMedia memory cards. This lets you take the memory card out of the camera, insert it in the printer and get images without having to use a Windows PC or a Mac.

Armed with these two devices, Will became the official photographer at the party. Not only did he return with some neat pictures of his friends, so did everyone else. He used the printer to make copies so that everyone got to take home their favorite shots.

Aside from eliminating the cost of film and processing, digital cameras are great for helping kids express their curiosity and creativity. When I use the camera, I generally stick to its standard modes, but my kids have found ways to configure it to create some innovative images.

Both Will and his 16-year-old sister, Katherine, can take pictures in black and white. In addition to bringing back fond memories of my childhood days with a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye, it's allowed them to explore picture-taking in, literally, a whole different light. Making good black-and-white pictures requires different skills than color and the results -- as Ansel Adams fans will testify -- can be breathtaking.

The digital camera has also allowed them to focus on subjects -- such as cracks in the sidewalk or our pets in weird poses -- that they might not ordinarily photograph. Yes, many of the pictures they take are horrendous. But at zero cost, there's no harm done.

There have been numerous times when the kids have taken so many pictures we've run out of memory. Yet that isn't a problem. Most mid- to high-end cameras have an LCD screen that lets you review your pictures and free up memory by deleting unwanted images.

That LCD display, by the way, has been one of the high points of the digital camera. Just as with Polaroid instant pictures, the ability to see the image immediately adds to the enjoyment, especially for kids who seem to have an even greater desire than adults for instant gratification.

Don't overlook the excitement you can share with people you meet while traveling. About a year ago, I journeyed to Peru with Patrick Cashmore, a Palo Alto-based professional photographer. Patrick, who uses a digital camera that cost more than many new cars, took pictures of children on the street, with permission, and then showed the kids how they looked on his camera's LCD screen. He became the pied piper of Lima. You can see what I mean on the Web (www.safekids.com/jason/day1.htm).

In addition to the expensive cameras intended for adults, there are a few designed and priced for kids.

KBGear Interactive (www.kbgear.com), for example, has an $89.99 camera called the JamCam 2.0, which takes low-resolution images, measuring 640 pixels by 480 pixels. Children can store up to 24 pictures in the camera's internal memory. But, unlike costlier cameras, it does not accept additional memory cards. Later this year, the company is expected to release an upgraded JamCam at $99.99 that does accept CompactFlash memory cards. However, the new camera, like the existing one, doesn't have an LCD display. Such LCDs add considerably to the price, so it will be some time before we'll see them on cameras selling for under $100.

One potential downside to digital photography, for kids or adults, is that you don't get a nice neat stack of prints, as you do when you get film developed. Instead, there are images on your PC you either have to look at on screen or go to the trouble of printing. My wife is still waiting for copies of pictures my kids and I took during our recent trip to Barbados. They're on my hard drive, and one of these days I'll get around to editing and printing them, but that doesn't do her any good. She wants to see them now.

On the other hand, it's easy and inexpensive to share digital images through e-mail or the Web. Even printing doesn't have to be costly. I'm careful about letting my kids use expensive glossy paper, but they're generally happy with the results they get with plain paper.