I'm a little obsessed with cameras; my own camera of choice is a Canon EOS 300D purchased eight years ago when I was in my final year teaching in Reading. It's taken some amazing photos over the years of many different locations and the difference between that and a standard digital is astounding. We've got a couple of 'point and shoots' in the house, and therefore it was only going to be a matter of time before The Boy wanted to start taking his own photos. He's played on the iPod Touch but the camera on that is quite frankly a bit pants.

Therefore when The Boy was sent a child-friendly camera to review, he was very excited and my DSLR breathed a metaphorical sigh of relief.

The VTech Kidizoom Twist is an improved version of the Kidizoom with a rotating camera lens to face conventionally, angle it through 180° and finally face the photographer to take self-portraits. This in itself makes it a big hit with The Boy who is fascinated with taking pictures of himself and frquently pulls faces at the camera while taking a series of photos. (Just to avoid confusion, the flash is where there is conventionally a lens. Obviously this doesn't work when facing the photographer!)

His ability to take photographs is improving as he remembers to frame the subject in the good-sized screen on the back. There are two ways to take a photograph. Either by pressing the button on the top (in the normal place) or by pressing the 'ok' button. As The Boy's hands are only little, he can't quite reach the main button and therefore happily presses the 'ok' button which rests just above his thumbhold. The camera doesn't react straight away and it's taken a little while for him to understand that he needs to wait until he hears the shutter sound before moving the camera away.

One of the other features of the Kidizoom Twist is the instant photo-editing function. There are a variety of frames and special effects which can be previewed on the screen before taking the photo and they made us chuckle.

The technical bit: