A disposable camera for the 21st century...sort of.

Well, it's certainly not disposable in the most literal of senses, but the $50 spent for the 3-megapixel Phillips PT44434 Retro-Inspired Ultra Slim Digital camera is about the best bang-for-buck deal I've ever seen.

"Retro" terminology aside -- there's nothing retro about the lithe 0.5-inch profile that the Phillips carves -- the 4x digital zoom and built-in flash make the camera truly great in a squeeze. Camera aficionados thumb their noses at such meek stats, but I'll tell you -- it wasn't all that long ago that three megapixels was consumer king. For this price, though, it's tempting to tuck one away anywhere, from the car glovebox to the back pocket. You could probably afford to give all the neighborhood kids one, and you'll never hear the crank-crank of a true disposable ever again.

To put it in perspective: for the price of a Canon EOS-1D Mark III, you could have 86 -- that's right, 86 -- of these little wonders. It might not have a whole lot under the hood -- especially when compared to the camera on the average cell phone these days -- but it's hard to go wrong for 50 greenbacks. I smell a new nickname already: "Grant's gift."