Easiest to use camera for old folks?

[jnmunsey]

My parents want to get a digicam. They are in their 60s and are not tech savvy at all.

So, which cameras do you all recommend for these kinds of people?

The do not need anything fancy. 99% of the pics they take will be of the "tourist" kind - a pic of people 8 feet away indoors and out.

They don't need special manual controls or even video capture. Just simple and easy.

I recall Kodak having some basic stuff that was easy lays year.

Oh, 3 megapixels is fine as well. Also a digicam that fits in a purse is good too, though something the size of an Elph is not necessary.

Thanks in advance.

John M

[PhilR.]

It is good that you aren't considering something as small as an Elph, since small camera equals small LCD and small buttons, none of which are good for persons in their 60's. I would just go to the local Wal-Mart or Target, look at the 3mp/3x zoom cameras from Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Fuji, HP or Kodak, and buy the one that has the biggest LCD and the biggest letters on that screen. I say this because these cameras will all more or less work the same. One will still have to navigate through a few menu's (which I know they will greatly dislike), but you could set up the camera to their needs as much as you can, and they will just have to learn how to change from record to play, and how to delete images.

For under $200 you can buy something that will fit their needs just fine, but won't have so many features that they would find it overly complicated. Don't sweat the decision as to what brand to buy. All of the above are essentially equal in build and image quality as long as you compare cameras of equal price.

hth,
PhilR.

[John_Reed]

My parents want to get a digicam. They are in their 60s and are not tech savvy at all.

So, which cameras do you all recommend for these kinds of people?

The do not need anything fancy. 99% of the pics they take will be of the "tourist" kind - a pic of people 8 feet away indoors and out.

They don't need special manual controls or even video capture. Just simple and easy.

I recall Kodak having some basic stuff that was easy lays year.

Oh, 3 megapixels is fine as well. Also a digicam that fits in a purse is good too, though something the size of an Elph is not necessary.

Thanks in advance.

John MBeing 65 myself, but more than a little "tech-savvy," I'll say that my experience with lay people using digital cameras is that they usually don't have that much of a problem taking pictures, their problem is more what to do with the camera and the photos after the pictures are taken. The whole business of downloading, maybe editing, etc., of photos seems to be a stumbling block for a lot of my contemporaries. With that in mind, I'd think about a really simple camera setup that can either print directly without going through a computer, directly to an easy-to-use printer. Something like one of those Kodak "Easy Share" docking systems might be just the ticket, where they just dock the camera, push the button, and Presto! They've got prints. Just a thought.

[PhilR.]

Good idea above! Something else to consider in this vein - if people just want prints and don't want to mess with the computer at all, and don't have a camera that has a docking station, one can still just pull out the memory card and take it to a print kiosk at the local Wal-mart or similar. They only need to stick the card into the machine, choose which picture to print, and let the machine take it from there. IOW, one only needs a camera and memory card in order to make prints, and nothing else....

Phil

[Manstein]

I gave my mother a Sony DSC W1, simple power and shutter buttons on the top and a half gig card. Must admit I sort out the download etc for her.

[Need4Spd]

I don't know why a Canon Elph would be a bad idea for older people. The buttons are plenty big enough on the SD200 and SD300 cameras and the LCDs are big (2") and bright. Importantly, when you change flash and other modes, a BIG representation (important for us who are now old enough to need reading glasses) of the mode icon appears briefly on the screen so it's easy to see (then it recedes to a smaller icon so it doesn't interfere with picture composition). These are also very robust in construction and you'll want to take it everywhere because they're easy to use and very compact.

[Victoria]

Although I love my SD300, I wouldn't recommend it for your parents due to the fact is that they are really small... easy to forget/misplace/drop. I would recommend the Kodak Easy Share cams. They are generally pure point and shoot cameras (little if ANY manual controls), have simple menus and are cheap to boot. The best thing is, for such a low-priced camera, it has good picture quality!

Also take a look at the panasonic DX5/7 which offers the Mega OIS. That would be useful as well.

Hope this helps :cool:

[Rhys]

The big problem seems to be the same as that experienced by film camera users. Some people know only how to aim and press a button. They need the high-street photo lab to put the film in and to take it out. APS was the magic solution to that but still people didn't seem capable of putting the film in the right way up. In the 1970s, 126 and 110 were the magic solutions yet people still couldn't get the cartridges into the camera.

Now we have more technology, higher prices, more fragile equipment and still a problem. This time the technology is simply too complicated.

I do wonder whether people who find memory cards and film too complicated to use would be perhaps better off buying postcards instead?