I just buy whatever I can get for a good price, if it has decent reviews. I have a Primos Truth Cam 46 that's a pretty good camera. It's about a $120 camera, I got it for $100 from Cabelas on sale. I have a couple of old Moultrie D40's that are great if you want color night pictures (it's a white flash, not infrared.) The Moultrie D40 or D50 can be found on ebay now for about $65, which is a great deal. I've even seen them on sale for as low as $50. I got a couple of Wildgame Innovation W6XAC's from Amazon when they had them for $49.99 a couple months ago, but they're all sold out now. You can also get a Tasco from Wal Mart for $50 and I've had good luck with them.
Right now I would have to recommend the Wildgame Innovations camera that is on
www.camofire.com but you'd have to buy it tonight. It's only $72 and it uses a rechargeable battery so you never have to buy batteries for it. I'd give that one a try for that price for sure. The problem is, he may only want one but he'll find out soon enough that he needs more than one camera, in order to cover more than one spot at a time. That's why I like to get the cheaper cameras. Plus you never know when a bear will destroy one or somebody will steal one.