Technology is such a standard today that it’s hard for modern civilization to imagine life without it, but that statement applies mainly to people aged between 10 and 30. As technology has developed so quickly and widespread over the last 40 years, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the older generation lived life without most of the daily devices we use today such as computers, mobile phones, colour tvs, cameras and games consoles among many others. Then you have the new generation, who are growing up surrounded by technology, but how do they get to grips with it? Well, when it comes to using a camera which are even found in most peoples pockets on their mobile phone, Oaxis introduces their myFirst brand for introducing electronic devices to children, including the myFirst Camera Insta 2. I’ll be going over its features and if it’s worth buying for your children.
Design
The Insta 2 comes in two colours, pastel pink and blue, and features a robust plastic casing, with a rubber charging and Micro SD card slot cover on the left side and rubber lanyard holders on the top. The outside border, buttons and the top front of the camera feature your selected colour, where as the back and printing slot are a white plastic. There is a speaker on the right hand side, a total of 8 buttons on the back and 2 cameras for taking both standard photos and selfies, if you are in to photography as much as we do, check out this guide about how to convert negatives to digital pics. There shouldn’t be any way for a child to easily hurt themselves using the device, and it’s nice and sturdy so it should survive plenty of drops and bashes, depending on how aggressive your child may be!
In terms of specifications, the myFirst Camera Insta 2 has:
- A 2.4″ IPS Color Screen
- Takes Photographs & Videos
- Photo Resolution: 12MP/8MP/5MP
- Video Resolution: 1920X1080 / 30FPS
- Battery Capacity: 1500mAh
- Charging Time: 2.5 Hours
- Storage: Memory Card up to 32GB
- Camera Weight: 8.2oz / 232g
- Also Comes With 3 Rolls of High Quality Thermal Paper (1 Roll Adhesive)
- Neck Lanyard Included
Ontop of these specs, you also get a 1GB Micro SD, USB 2.0 Micro SD Card Reader to plug into a PC, a 9″ Micro USB Cable with both a Micro USB and Type-C USB Adapter to connect to your mobile phone and finally stickers including name tags, emoticons and a selection of animals and text bubbles. I have to say as a complete package I think this is a fantastic bundle, ready to rock and roll as soon as it arrives at your door.
Operation
Now as an adult who is used to operating cameras, it’s a very straightforward operation to handle the Insta 2 as a general point-and-click camera. You simply turn it on after holding the power button for a few seconds, powering on with a myFirst intro screen and a small jingle – which for some reason does sound like it gets cut off before the sound clip is actually finished – and it’s ready to take photos by pressing the camera button. You can switch to video mode by pressing the video button, then pressing again to start recording and a final press to end recording. There is a camera switch button between standard and selfie, a button to enter the settings of the camera where you can change Image Quality, Language, Date and Time, Beep Sound (though unfortunately it has a typo and reads “Bepp Sound”), Format and Print Density, a back button, a plus and minus button, a button to view the gallery and finally a print button. On the display, an icon indicates if you are in Photo or Video mode, the resolution you are capturing in, whether an SD card is detected, the battery level and finally the date and current time. As this is a camera designed for children, there are no advanced settings like changing ISO, focus etc. as this is all automatic.
I do not have any children of my own, but a colleague of mine has a 6 year old daughter who I decided to give myFirst to, as the true test lies with her. With no instruction whatsoever, she picked up using the camera straight away, after only a short time fiddling to find out what each button does. In no time she was happily snapping away, printing photos out one by one with pure excitement. It’s easy to see how effective this camera can be for children as it’s not only so easy to use that it doesn’t even require direction, but you can imagine a child actually getting into photography because of it. There was only one concern with the camera, and that was after printing several pictures in a row, the Insta 2 produced some heat to the touch which is a concern to parents. It didn’t get dangerously hot, but you can imagine leaving a child with it and they, being children, print over and over making it hot. Other than this however, it’s a fantastic device that any child can use.
Now, as an adult, the camera isn’t exactly fantastic. The images it produces are a little pixelly, and the prints are not very clear if there is a lot of objects on the scene. The image I printed at the top of this article is of a flat surface (screen) and so has printed quite clearly, but a photo featuring several people, or a landscape, prints out rather badly. Now this could be a complaint about this product, but I don’t really believe that it is, as children don’t care about that and they are the target audience here. The photos do only take 10 seconds to print, which is brilliantly quick, and it only prints in black and white. Fascinatingly, there is no ink replacement, as the box states the camera has unlimited printing! Another thing to note is that there are even note and greeting templates built in, giving some variation to taking photos.
Conclusion
The myFirst Camera Insta 2 is quite an impressive device, in both it’s intuitive features and design, and it’s ease of use for any age. The Insta 2 costs $99.90 directly from Oaxis, but is it worth it? I think it is, but only if your child is between the ages 5-8. Buying the camera for this age it will be more engaging and will last longer, as an older child might want more results than what this can produce. In terms of value for money though, the entire package you get is hard to come by at this price, and I truly believe that a child could grow an interest in photography which would follow through as they grow older. There are more products like this that Oaxis sell, which could follow on from the Insta 2, as well as many more for adults.
