All in all, this is probably the best $25 I've spent in a LONG LONG time...
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program I was fortunate enough to receive this product as part of the Vine review program. Please note that the camera is an add on product and that you will need to also purchase the LeapFrog Explorer handheld game separately. This camera will not work without that component. If you have both, you'll need to unscrew the bottom accessory port (Phillps screwdriver required) and attach the camera into the Leapster handheld component. I also needed to connect the Handheld to my computer and download software (free) from the Leapster website. Once these steps were completed, it was quick and easy to take both photos and video. The photo resolution is 640 by 480 and the camera does not have flash or zoom, but does capture crisp, well-colored photos in bright lighting. The camera also shoots video, in a "point and shoot" type of format. The microphone is located on the front of the camera accessory, so if the photographer speaks the sound is not as loud as if the subject speaks. The video results are somewhat choppy but the color is fairly good.The camera comes with a variety of game and software options, plus the photos can be archived and shared using the Leapster Connect website interface. Once the initial setup is complete, it's quick and easy to pick up and use the camera, but the voice prompted interface does require a few moments of patience and touchscreen or stylus tapping prior to shooting photos.
Fun for kids, but this product will definitely require some adult setup and supervision to use properly. The camera/handheld unit are solid and would definitely withstand the potential drops and crashes that little users may put it through. This would like be a great way to introduce little ones to the art of photography without putting your good camera at risk.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program We received the Explorer with the camera/video attachment a few weeks ago. We have a 10 year old and a 4 year old, and this system is appropriate and interesting for both age groups. The Explorer system with the camera and video attached, is sophisticated, educational, and most of all, fun.The camera attachment plugs directly into the bottom of the Explorer module, and we used the included CD to install its software on our computer. The installation was easy and seamless. The kids were instantly able to use both the still and video cameras. The whole system is small enough to take on outings. The buttons on the game console were straight forward and easy to figure out. The 4 year old needed some assistance with how to center photos, but it didn't take her long to catch on. She was also quickly adept at using the special effects software, and she has been having a blast with it.
At four, she needs assistance with PC connections, and file transfers, but, for the most part, she can use the system quite competently on her own. The ten year old intuitively knew how to work everything. The only problem we had was which kid had control of the system! That problem persists.
The video and photo quality is quite good, certainly far better than what has been available in the past. It is terrific to be able to transfer the files to the computer, since the memory on the system fills up quickly, especially with videos. It is easy to transfer and delete data from the card to keep it ready to record.
The Explorer system with the camera attachment is now the favorite video game/camera system in the house, and the interest is not diminishing at all.
The computer interaction for parents for this system is great.
The only change we have to make is to purchase the charger available for the Explorer, since we sure are running through a lot of batteries!
I can't recommend this system highly enough, it is very impressive, and great fun for everyone.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program I was asked to test this camera in conjunction with the LeapFrog Explorer system. I immediately gave it to my 3 year old twins for the "true" test.My kids are pretty tech savie...both can operate my iPad, they have their own laptop, and play around with our digital point and shoot camera already. I thought this would be a natural fit for them.
My kids were interested in the LeapFrog explorer for a little while, but found it overly cumbersome to get to the picture taking capability. Too much manipulation of the main system was required to get to the camera to take pictures. They were used to simply hitting the power button and immediately snapping pictures on the point and shoot that we have.
Also, the camera resolution on this thing is pretty terrible. At only 640x480, the images were grainy, poorly lit, etc. The kids typically use our Canon point and shoot which has a flash on it so it helps freeze the action of them running around. This LeapFrog camera has no flash so the images are blurred.
Downloading the images to the computer is harder task than simply dropping the SD memory card into the card reader. The offload process is definitely too complicated for a kid to do it by themself.
All in all, I would recommend that if a parent is interested in a digital camera for their kids I would go with the Crayola Digital Camera for kids that is about $29.99 at the local Costco or Walmart. That one has a flash, 3MP resolution, and seems much more durable.
PROS:
FUN DIGITAL CAMERA FOR YOUNG KIDS
WORKS WITH LEAPFROG EXPLORER (IF YOU ALREADY HAVE BOUGHT IT!)
CONS:
REQUIRES THE EXISTING LEAPFROG EXPLORER PURCHASE
POOR IMAGE QUALITY
NO FLASH
DIFFICULT OFFLOAD
SLOW STARTUP TIME TO GET TO CAMERA
QUESTIONABLE DURABILTY
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine ProgramFor parents who already own a Leapster, this accessory is a very worthwhile add-on. It'll provide your child with countless hours of enjoyment as well as an excellent outlet for creative expression. Who knows. You may be nurturing the next Ansel Adams, Michael Bay, or Annie Leibovitz. With it, your child can take snapshots or video of whatever catches his/her attention, then engage in fun learning/playtime activities with the recordings. With photos, he/she can draw all over them, stretching them, adding scribbles, pattern stamps, or fracture them into puzzle pieces to reconstruct in a game called Photo Fracture. With a game called Zapped, kids can practice spelling or math by shooting the numbers or letters with a space ship. They can customize the background, ship and bad guys with their own photos.
With videos, your child can set them to one of several pre-recorded music choices to make a music video. This is really fun and cheesy. I chose a track that sounded like Inspector Gadget's theme song and walked around my kitchen. The result was hilarious, and I'm a jaded adult/technology reviewer. Just think of how much fun your child will have doing this.
The camera does, however, have some flaws that kept it from being a 5-star product:
SETUP REQUIRED:
One con is that the add-on is not plug 'n' play out of the box. It requires manual setup and you need to have access to the computer you installed the LeapFrog software on. First, you have to unscrew the slot cover at the bottom of the Leapster, plug in the camera, then connect it to your computer via USB cable to download the 45 MB software for the device. Starting up the camera is a bit slow. After selecting the Camera icon from the main menu, the screen goes black for about 5-8 seconds. There's no loading animation like a circle spinning or other indicator, making me think it's not responding.
MEDIOCRE CAMERA IMAGE QUALITY:
Do not expect great digital image clarity with the camera. Do not expect even good image quality. First and foremost, it is a toy, and will give you toy-quality photos. The resolution is 640x480 and colors are very muddy due to high JPEG compression (a sacrifice in order to fit more photos into the internal memory). Please see the gallery for some sample photos I took of my kitchen. Your child probably won't care, but this a consideration, especially if you are asked to print out the photos. At 640x480, the prints will not look good (640x480 = 307k pixels, compared to the 5-8 megapixel cameras most grown-ups have).
Also, there's no zoom feature or ability for your child to take a picture of him/herself because the camera faces the back of the unit.
With videos, the recording resolution is 320x200. The frame rate is very slow and choppy, as you can see from the sample video. If you move around very slowly, the camera will be OK, but given how active kids are, you're likely to be a proud parent of a child showing you a blurry video. The microphone is adequate. You can hear the ambient noises it picked up in my video.
DOWNLOADING IMAGES AND VIDEOS TO COMPUTER:
This is a great feature. You can download all the photos and images taken by your child to your PC or Mac. From there, you can upload it to Flickr, YouTube, email it, Facebook it, whatever. Unfortunately, you can't export the music videos created with Video Maestro.
SUMMARY
Despite the technical limitations of the camera, this product is still a lot of fun to play with. If you already have a Leapster, I highly recommend this add-on. It'll open up entire new avenues of exploration and entertainment for your child. He/she can unlock badges by doing different things (like take 10 photos, make a music video) as further encouragement to interact with the unit. A lot of fun and sure to create many funny moments for parent and child alike.
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