What cheap durable digital for my 8 year old ?

[oogieboogie]

Anyone bought their little 'un a camera recently? My boy's birthday coming up - I'd like to get him something that would allow him to snap away whenever he likes, instead of borrowing mine. Looking for:

£100 definitely a high end maximum
a screen (struggles with viewfinder)
not too delicate
macro too - he likes his wildlife

Durability more important than quality of pix at the moment... you just know it's going to get dropped ! Grateful for any help

[J111]

This might suit ? Truly durable compacts tend to be expensive, unfortunately, but that gives instant gratification without him hogging your computer. Adding an LCD shade would improve the camera's durability a bit.

Edited for wrong link.

Edited by J111 on Thursday 8th March 14:48

[dogsey]

My 3 year old regularly uses an old Kodak digital (EasyShare CX6200), it's only 2meg and not exactly state of the art even when it was new, but if she breaks it who cares! Surely the best bet is a second hand jobbie from E-Bay?

[ahockley]

Ebay is your friend - I've just bought another Olympus mju 400 to replace one I 'mislaid' for £30. I had the one I lost for 3 years, took thousands of photos, it survived diving, skiing (including falls), and most importantly hundreds of drunken student nights.. the amount of times my friends (and I on occasion) have dropped it, even with the lens out, is huge. I seem to remember playing rugby with it as the ball once.. It withstood everything. It's got a metal body and claims to be 'weatherproof' too. Took fantastic 4mp photos all this time too.

Good luck!

[Gemm]

My local Woolworths have one for £20 at the moment. It's got a LCD which kids love. I would've thought it's worth it for that price.

[steil]

www.morgancomputers.co.uk have a choice at under £30 - bought an Olympus for my 7yr old - works a treat and a handy size for little hands & a disposable price.
www.7dayshop.com has a battery charger for £13 which charger in under an hour, they also have cheap memory cards

[oogieboogie]

Wow - no wonder we're a throwaway society when they're as low as £30, eh?

Thanks for the advice peeps, plenty of choice out there.