eKids Bluey Camera Review: This Nightmare Puts the Eww in Review

My editor-in-chief, Jaron Schneider, tasked me with a Christmas challenge to review a camera unlike anything I had reviewed before. On my doorstep shows up a Bluey-themed kids’ camera with the worrisome “eKids” branding on the bottom. I had a family vacation coming up in Alberta’s capital city of Edmonton, so it was the right opportunity to put the camera through a rugged baptism of fire. We planned on shooting at the Royal Alberta Museum, which would give us bright and dark conditions in which to test the camera. Even with low expectations, I came away disappointed.

Let’s keep things in context, though: This camera is only $40. However, the list of included accessories is slim, and I began the review with only a 512MB Micro-SD card and a flimsy wrist strap. There was no adapter to accommodate the microSD card to a more common SD card slot, although you can download files via the micro-USB port. More importantly, there were no batteries included, of which the Bluey camera requires three AA batteries, and critically, there was no screwdriver to open the camera to place said batteries and microSD card into the camera. Like all cheap kid’s toys on Christmas morning, if you don’t have a tiny screwdriver handy, you are figuratively screwed. This turned out to be only the first of many egregious issues.

The front of the camera is welcoming and ensures a smile from portrait subjects.

Here is Bluey next to Jordan Drake. Even with the aid of professional lighting, Jordan’s skin tones become a waxy-looking mess.

You will need to bring a screwdriver everywhere with this camera. You need it to change batteries and download images. God help you if the screw gets stripped.

eKids Bluey Camera Review: How it Feels

The outside fascia of the camera features the very lovable Australian national treasure that is Bluey. This is a fun and attention-grabbing design choice, which most kids will surely enjoy. I particularly like the titular character Bluey’s triangular ears, reminiscent of a rip-saw blade protruding off the camera’s top. However, her ears make this pocketable camera about as pleasant to remove from a pocket as an actual saw blade.

The camera body is lightweight and easy enough to hold for small hands, but unfortunately, there is no tripod thread on the bottom, and the camera’s base is rounded, so you can’t even prop it on a flat table surface. This poor design choice makes the use of the included self-timer function dubious at best.

The camera body is easy to hold but the tiny screen and over-simplistic controls are frustrating.

A cyan filter creates a somber tone and helps to cover up the distracting noise that such a tiny sensor creates.

The four buttons on the back of the camera allow navigation of the camera menu and various functions and double as function buttons depending on your mode. For example, while shooting photos or videos, the left and right buttons engage multiple color filters, mirror-image filters, or overlays of your favorite Bluey characters onto your images.

However, in playback mode, the up and down buttons will bring up a delete image option or delete all images options. It is easy for anyone, especially kids, to accidentally delete a desired image and even easier to delete all their photos without thinking. My nine-year-old daughter did this twice by accident, provoking understandable disappointment that may have been accompanied by a few tears. Damn you, Bluey.

Three AA batteries and a micro-SD card will get you started taking photos. There is a micro-USB port to download the images as well.

At least the games are functional and provided a few moments of distraction before resuming the picture-taking process.

The shutter is a very light trigger, and images are confusingly captured upon release, not when pressing the button. As a result, the camera rocks back and forth quite a bit before the image is captured, which creates additional motion blur. There are no flash options or manual exposure controls, but at least the tiny sensor ensures ample depth of field, making focusing a non-issue. Overall, the camera handling is simple but quirky, providing a poor experience to even the most patient photographers. The one saving grace is the assortment of built-in games with old classics like Tetris or Snake, to mention just a couple. These were fun to play, although I fear the toll on battery life will be significant. I hope you brought that screwdriver with you.

This camera is supposed to instill happy family memories but is more likely to create frustrating nightmares. My smile would soon fade.

The Royal Alberta Museum was incredible and I was genuinely enjoying snapping shots until I saw the results at home.

eKids Bluey Camera Review: How it Shoots

The camera has just a two-megapixel sensor, and I’m confident the imaging pipeline, including the tiny lens, is pulled straight from a dashcam (and not a very good one).

Images are mushy and soft at the best of times, but often much worse than that. Although photos look decent on the minuscule TFT display on the back, when downloaded to a computer, the results are woefully poor. 4×6-inch prints are the maximum I recommend, and they will still have less detail than the beloved 2D animated TV series that inspired this camera. The 1080p video was surprisingly good, but only when it was compared against the stills’ image quality.

The test chart has never looked so bad. The detail is smeared and soft, and there are definitely better 2MP cameras out there.

I also took the camera to famous Banff, Alberta, to capture the majestic mountains. They looked far better in person, I promise.

The tiny lens array has serious flare issues, with any image pointed toward a bright light source creating a large smear of light across the frame. By my best guess, the camera’s field of view is roughly a 28mm full-frame equivalent.

No matter how you look at it, the image quality is exceptionally poor, and even the most undiscerning children will recoil with an entirely reasonable disgust at the sight of these pictures. They do not even qualify in the “it’s so bad that it’s good” category like black and white vintage Game Boy Camera images might. I hope I have gotten my point across about how terrible the pictures are. I never need to touch this camera again and certainly wouldn’t give it to my kids.

Any bright light sources will create a smeared flare radiating from the light sources.

The colored filters are fun to use and help to at least stylize the atrocious image quality to some degree.

eKids Bluey Camera Review: Bluey Broke My Heart

Everyone I talk to extols the virtues of the Bluey TV show, remarking on how touching and sophisticated it is at explaining the human condition with the help of a monochromatic dog family. Sadly, I fear this camera can only cause anxiety and frustration to the target audience that it is intended for and anger and turbulence to the family that owns it. It will only serve to push families further apart without even providing some redeeming images to document the chaos that ensues. Only those who look at security camera footage and exclaim “now that is art” will enjoy the results.

A much more appropriate child’s camera would be better served with a rugged, waterproof camera made under far more reliable brand names like Nikon, Pentax, and OM System. It will be more expensive than the $40 Bluey cam, but it will be worth it for the zoom, better image quality, and fully waterproof nature of the underwater designs. Say “phooey” to the pooey Bluey camera.

Is my daughter grossed out by the bugs or the camera?

You can bring some of Bluey’s friends along for the dismal ride.

Alternatives?

A used waterproof camera like any of the Olympus Tough TG series cameras or Pentax Optio WG cameras will be money well spent. Better kid’s cameras may be out on the market for slightly more money, but I’m too traumatized to look into it.

Should You Buy It?

No. Never. You should not buy this camera. The adorable cachet that Bluey provides on the face of the camera masks an otherwise horrible experience.