Camera for a 12 year old?

[my3princes]

My DS has started showing interest in photography. He seems to have a real eye for it and takes some very cool pictures of things that just blow me away. He really notices and focuses on details rather than the larger object that I tend to see. Anyway, I'm considering buying him a digital camera for Christmas. Obviously I don't want to spend an arm and leg on a camera for a 12 year old as I'd hate for him to misplace it or drop it. I'm thinking $200 or less. He would like something compact. He used my Canon Digital Elph Powershot SD400 on a recent outing to a car show and took some really nice photos, 297 of them I really have no idea what is out there for cameras, what would be appropriate for him or what's a decent camera. I would like some sort of optical zoom, compact size and possibly image stabilization as mine doesn't have it and some shots are blurry (could just be user error). Are there other important things to look for? Thanks for any help.

Just for fun here are a few photos that he took.

This is a hood ornament

This was on a tire cover

A mural on the back of a truck

This was a little guy painted to look like he was peeking out of a hole in the side of the car. He really focused on the eyes. We had no idea until we saw the photos that the critter had hair.

Thanks again

Deb

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

It looks like he's off to a great start ... he's got a good eye!

Here's three good cameras under $200 with small size/IS/optical zoom (3x and 4x or 35mm to 140mm):

The Canon PowerShot A570 IS.
The Nikon Coolpix L12.
And, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX10

I think any kid who's caught the 'photo-bug' would be thrilled to have a camera like one of these!

 

[my3princes]

Thanks for the quick response. I will print out the specs on these and check them out. We have a 3 week WDW vacation planned for next summer so it would be nice to have some pictures from his perspective.

I see that you are just back. How was your trip?

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Thanks for the quick response. I will print out the specs on these and check them out.

There might be others, too. I just went to DCRP's Camera List page and scanned down in the price and IS columns. I might have missed a few, but I was only focusing on brands that I'm at least a little familiar with....

I see that you are just back. How was your trip?

We had a great time!

The weather wasn't optimum for photography every day (lots of overcast/white skies and intermittent drizzles/showers), but we got to do everything we wanted to as far as rides and shows went. Park attendance was the lowest we've ever seen, and most rides were walk-on ... even in Fantasyland! In the middle of the day, we were able to ride Dumbo, for the first time in six trips for our family, with a wait of only about 10 min.!

We also had the Free Dining, and our meals were great (and, mostly, TOO BIG!); Coral Reef, Boma, Hoop-dee-doo, and Sci-Fi!

I posted a dozen of my favorite pics (out of the 1500+ that I took!!), here....

 

[my3princes]

Those came out very nice. thanks for sharing.