AT AMAZON, bestsellers in digital cameras.

UPDATE: Reader Jerry Huling writes:

I want to call your attention to the Sylvania HD1Z SD/SDHC/MMC 720p HD Pocket Video Digital Camera/Camcorder.

I bought a couple of these under the “Emerson” brand name at Big Lots for $25 each. With an 8-Gig SIMM card, they’ll record about an hour of video and audio or store about a zillion snapshots.

They’re certainly not “high-end”, but for turning on and dropping in your shirt pocket while being “interviewed” on the side of the road by the highway patrol, I don’t think they could be beat.

Here’s an example of the Emerson. Even the Sylvania model, at thirty-seven bucks is not a bad deal for a simple, rugged, and cheap video/audio/still camera.

As I said quite a while ago, what’s really impressive isn’t how good the expensive cameras have gotten. It’s how good the cheap cameras have gotten. And if you plan to shoot video in rough-and-tumble circumstances, there’s a lot to be said for having one that’s cheap enough to be expendable.