What's the Best Camera for Pictures of Kids?

Parents love photos of our kids. We take them at birthday parties, sleepovers, camping trips, school, and just around the house. We pay for professional photographers to take portraits and for the kids to have their pictures taken at school every year. It seems we can’t ever get enough pictures of our kids.

But if you want to take great pictures of your own kids, can a camera help you get those shots you want? The answer is a resounding yes. The best camera for pictures of kids is a DSLR. It will help you capture those special moments that you might miss with a compact point-and-shoot. The reason a DSLR is the best camera for pictures of kids comes down to one word – speed.

Digital SLRs are also capable of producing higher quality images and they give you more creative control over your photos, but for parents, the biggest difference between a DSLR and any other camera is the fast response time.

When you turn on a compact digital camera, it usually takes a second or more to warm up and be ready to take photos. With a DSLR, there’s virtually no waiting. When you turn it on, it’s ready to go to work, and when you press the shutter button, you don’t have that annoying shutter lag time between the moment you press the shutter button and the moment the camera actually takes the picture.

That short delay can cost you the photo of a lifetime. It’s the difference between getting a photo of your child diving or jumping into the swimming pool alone for the first time or getting a photo of the big splash after he disappeared under the water.

Years ago, you needed to understand things like f-stops and film speeds to use an SLR. Today, however, DSLRs are so automated that they’re as easy to use in auto mode as a point-and-shoot camera. If you want to learn how to use all the bells and whistles, you can, but you don’t need to. That’s why there’s no question that the best camera for pictures of kids is a DSLR.

It’s an investment you’ll never regret.