My 2 and a half year old daughter had seen me taking photographs of her on a regular basis and she became fascinated with my camera. I let her hold my camera and I showed her how it worked, soon she was pointing and clicking at anything and everything. I eventually took it from her and noticed she had taken over 200 pictures with about 3 of them being any good(lol). I decided I would get her a little camera so she could snap to her hearts desire without having me worried about an expensive piece of equipment in the hands of a 2 year old. I wanted a camera that would be able to take decent pictures and was easy enough for her to use, I also wanted the camera to have a memory card slot and a big factor to consider was the price; I didn't want anything too expensive(lets face it, I don't expect a digital camera to last too long in the hands of a 2 year old). I looked around online and a lot of the cameras for children seemed too babyish looking, I wanted something my daughter would be familiar with, something similar to her dads camera. I eventually came across the Vivitar ViviCam 9124. The camera retails from amazon.co.uk for £29.99 plus £2.95 postage and packaging and it comes in pink...perfect!(the camera comes in a variety of colours including black, blue, orange and red, I just opted for pink because I happen to like the colour and also it looked girly in a non sexist kind of way).

I read a little about the camera and decided that was the one I was going to order, I noticed that you could buy the camera and the case for £34.96, so that's what I did. Delivery of the camera was really quick and I couldn't wait to get it out to familiarise myself with it before giving it to my daughter.

==What's in the Box==
1 x 9 pink megapixel camera
1 x USB cable
1 x wrist strap
1 x instruction manual

The camera is a nice size, a little bigger than my Samsung ST700, and the colour is a much brighter pink than the one in the picture, it is more of a shocking pink colour. The camera does feel quite cheap plastic, but at £29.99 plus postage I wouldn't expect anything more than that. The battery require 3 AAA batteries to power it, which I find a pain, would have preferred a lithium battery but again this would have something to do with the cost and I knew what I was getting into when I purchased it.

The camera has a 2.4" screen to the rear of it, big enough for a young child to see exactly what they are taking a photo of. The zoom in and zoom out buttons are located at the top right of the rear of the camera, below this is the mode button, used to change through the different modes on the camera; photograph, video etc, you also press this button to look through your photo slideshow. Further below the mode button is a little joy pad with 5 buttons(4 on the outside ring and 1 in the center). Clockwise from the top, the top button is for turning the flash on and off, the next button is for deleting your image, the bottom button is the Vivilink button, this is used for uploading pics to a social networking site such as Facebook or Twitter and the left button is for changing the scene(Auto, Scenery, Portrait, Night Scenery, Night Portrait, High Sensitivity and Beach), you set these by using the central button which is simply named "Set". Another little bonus to this camera is the built in face detection software(this seems to be a standard thing on most cameras now, no matter how cheap they are).

To the base of the camera is the SD card slot, this camera can hold up to a 32Gb SD card, my daughter has a 2Gb SD card in hers(SD cards do not come included in the price of the camera, you can purchase them relatively cheaply through amazon.co.uk).

On the left side of the camera(as you are looking through it) is the USB port, which by attaching the USB cable you can transfer videos & photos onto your computer/laptop or other hardware device. The Macro on and off switch is also located on the left side of the camera.

On the right side of the camera is where the battery housing unit is located. Top of the camera is the power switch and the larger button is for pressing in order to take photos.


==Verdict==

Overall this is a great first camera for my little one, I don't expect it to last long as it isn't very robust, and my daughter can be heavy handed at times, but through time using it she will learn to use it properly and she will know what to do and what not to do with it, so in time she will be ready for an upgrade and I might be more inclined to spend a little extra. The buttons are placed so it is easy for her little fingers to press and the camera is relatively simple for her to use, once I showed her how to take a photograph she was off and away. This would make a great first camera for anyone of any age, I just reviewed this based on my experiences with my daughter, her teenage half sisters were quite envious when they saw their 2 year old sister with a better camera than they had. The camera is pretty basic but there are probably more than enough features on it than my daughter will ever use, especially at this early stage, she just likes to point and click away. I do recommend if buying this for a young child that you make sure he/she is supervised while using it.