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The Christmas season often brings with it the "I want, I want, I wants" from kids and teens alike, but you may not want to be so quick to get frustrated with the teen girl who asks for a digital camera. This is actually a very worthwhile and quality gift that can teach her, help her start a new and fun hobby, and learn more about herself and what she likes. Oftentimes most important to a teen is not the high quality of her camera, but how cool it looks! Look for models in bright & flashy colors and that look funky and high-tech, even if they aren't top-shelf. Also get her a smaller, compact model rather than a larger camera, that she can fit in a purse, and consider cameras with neat, easy-to-use, "cool" features like sports mode.

Of course, your dilemma is what kind of camera to get her. You certainly don't want to go top-of-the-line, especially if she is just starting out in the world of digital cameras, but you don't need to go too cheap either. Invest in something middle-of-the-road and easy to use that she will enjoy. Here are a few good quality cameras to consider:

The Kidzoom Digital Camera comes in bright colors and is fairly basic but still quality. She can actually plug the camera into a TV or computer to view a slideshow of the photos she took, and the camera comes with special software so she can edit her own photos. This may be for a more pre-teen girl, as it has a childish, whimiscal look to the (outside) of the camera.

Another option is the Nikon D40 Digital SLR camera. This digital is lower-priced in the spectrum of digital cameras, yet still takes nice photos.

Staying on the Nikon theme, try the Nikon Coolpix L11. It is a basic camera at 6 megapixels but is under $100 and has 3x optical zoom, auto-focus (on the face), and shoots video. It is small and lightweight at 4.4 ozs.

A little more expensive but a fabulous model is the Casio Exilim EX-Z77. This camera was actually built to shoot YouTube videos. It has 7.2 megapixels and can be found under $200.

The best news is that digital cameras continue to drop in price as they have become more mainstream. We are beginning to see higher megapixel options - even up to 12 megapixels - drop in price, with many stores going even lower during the holidays. A general rule is the higher the megapixel, the better quality photos for your teen. Aim for 6-10 megapixels at minimums. And where to shop for these cameras? You can go to a specialty camera store like Wolf Camera or to a Best Buy, but nowadays even major retailers like Target and Wal-Mart are carrying the higher megapixel models, often at better price points.

Learn more about this author, Logan Stewart.
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