Kid Proof - Nikon and Cullmann

Okay, I admit it - nothing is truly kid proof. We've all bought those plastic locks for our home cabinets that are designed to keep baby out of the liquor and power tools - we have all arrived home at some stage of the game to find every door in the house open and the Black and Decker missing. Small children are all related to Willy Sutton and Harry Houdini...

Same with cameras. Hand your Leica M 9 to little Susie with the strict admonition to " just press the button" and you can be guaranteed she will give it back to you in 30 seconds with the body casting fractured and the lens leaking anti-freeze...

So welcome the little Nikon S30 camera. this is a modest little picture box, but has enough in it to take good family snaps and videos and can be entrusted to the offspring with no fear. You see, it has a simple battery system - 2 AA's in the base - and a lens that is totally enclosed, and the ability to stand water to 3 metres.

There are only 6 buttons on the back to make it work and the two really important one - "Snap" and "Whirr"- are on the top. One takes a still picture and one starts and stops the video. Just as simple as that. 3 x zoom lens. SD card. White colour. In-built flash.

Come to think of it, this might be the perfect in-car camera for those moments of road rage or mobile lust -or just when you see a public official and famous legal entity travelling along the freeway chatting away with his mobile phone to his ear and you want to capture it for posterity, not that that would have ever happened near the Leach Highway turnoff or anything like that...

The second star for today's blog is the little Cullmann FLEXX Suction Set. Squoosh it onto a glass or metal surface and attach a small camera to it with the tiny little quick-release plate. The set also has a flexible goose-neck tube and an accessory clip so that you can use it to hold items for table-top photography. Fun stuff.

Uncle Dick