Michael Patrick Brady

My fourth article for Forbes.com was published today, covering the best deals on digital cameras for the holiday season. In it, I discuss how affordable or budget digital cameras are no longer terrible, failure-prone risks. There are good, inexpensive options.

There are now sub-$200 cameras that actually are quite exceptional, and light-years beyond the kind of cameras you would have paid twice as much for two or three years ago. I also take some time to beat up on Kodak, who've been putting out some really disastrous product lately.

I've already talked about the Canon PowerShot A720IS, which really impressed me when I reviewed it. It's light, relatively compact, and has a very powerful 6x optical zoom.

It's a great all-around camera, and an excellent example of the progress that's been made in the last few years. If you bought your digital camera in 2004 or 2005, it's worth taking a look at what's out there now. The differences will be apparent and quite stunning.

The Canon PowerShot SD1000 is another remarkable camera. Slim, ultracompact, and powerful, it only costs about $175 right now. Can't really go wrong with this one.

Update: Apparently this article got picked up by MSN.com Arabia, in the "Women > Relationships" section. Go figure.

Update 4.16.08: This also got picked up by France's Le Figaro back in January, but I just noticed now.