Just when you thought technology rendered sitting through a slideshow in your living room obsolete, in comes the Playskool Show Cam 2-in-1 Digital Camera and Projector ( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) . While the Show Cam may give parents horrid flashbacks of sitting through Aunt Gertrude’s slideshow of her trip to Malta, kids are going to get a kick out of taking photos, then being able to show them instantly via projection to whoever they can finagle to sit and watch the show.

As its full name indicates, the Show Cam is both a digital camera and projector. It measures about 5.3 by 10 by 7 inches (HWD) and comes in either gray (with green and blue accents) or white (with pink and purple accents). Our review unit (which came in the gray color scheme) was relatively easy to take out the packaging. The device takes four AA batteries (not included) and comes bundled with a hand strap and an instruction sheet. What it doesn’t come bundled with is a USB-to-miniUSB cable to hooking the camera up to a PC, which is puzzling considering most toys of this ilk come with one.

The body of the device is made of shiny plastic, though the sides and buttons were fashioned from a rubberized material. This makes for easier gripping of the camera when taking photos. The Show Cam has a 1.75-inch digital color screen that seemed to have a grid overlay (to help positioning shots?) which seems more of a nuisance when you consider the user.

The green on/off switch is located below and to the right of the screen. The Show Cam turns off after one minute, which is great for conserving battery life, but was frustrating for my five-year-old when he was trying to frame a shot. To turn the Show Cam on again after an auto shutdown, you have to move the switch to the off then on position again. It’s a minor inconvenience, to be sure, but one that may mean a kid will lose interest in the device sooner than expected.

To the right of the screen is a large orange shutter button for taking pictures. A user can only take pictures when the green Camera/Projector switch (located on the side of the lens) is in the up position (Camera mode). The down position puts the device in Projector mode. Once you take a picture, you have to wait about 10 seconds to take another one. It seems like no big deal, but few kids at the age that this camera is targeted at have a real concept of time lapse. There were occasions when my tester, Matthew, would wait patiently to take another shot, and find that he waited too long and the camera had turned itself off. It would have been good if Playskool had a setting available to change the amount of time before the camera shut off. The company says that the Show Cam can store up to 1,000 VGA-resolution photos. Using the (non-included) USB cable, you can hook up the Show Cam to your PC and download the images.

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To the immediate left of the display is a blue four-way scroll switch. There is no dedicated button to display images you’ve taken in camera mode; instead you press the left or right button in the scroll switch to view the images in the digital screen. To delete images you don’t want, you press the red “X” button toward the bottom right of the device. Press once, and a trash icon with a question mark appears over the image on screen. Press again, and the image is deleted. If you press the trash icon by mistake and you don’t want to delete the image after all, then press one of the scroll buttons to get out of the trash mode.

The “Silly” button—the yellow smiley face button located at the bottom left of the camera—lets users overlay effects (such as a pirate’s hat, a mustache, etc.) to images while in camera mode. The caveat: You have to bring up the effects before you take a shot, rather than add the effect to existing images you’ve already taken. In Projector mode, you press the Silly button to bring up three different slideshow options.

Using the Projector mode is relatively simple. A pale background to show the image against and a very dark room are a must. The Show Cam should be about a maximum of two feet away from the screening surface in order for the image to be big enough for an audience to see without the image being too faded to be recognizable. Again, quality is not going to be great.

Frankly, however, Matt didn’t care about the low resolution. Given that he has an older brother, there were a couple of silly backside shots, as well as blurred shots of family members, and off-kilter overlays on portraits. He had a blast taking pictures (aside from the frustration of the automatic shutdown) and projecting them on the wall.

Overall, the Show Cam is a fairly solid toy for the 3-to-7-year-olds it targets. It’s easy for young hands to hold, and the controls are big enough for fingers to locate and press easily. The controls could use some identifying words next to them (you know, for the parents who have to actually walk them through using the toy), and the lack of a USB cable is a head-scratcher. A way to adjust the automatic shutdown time would also be welcome. As it is, it’s a fun device for budding photographers (or slideshow aficionados).