Bill, If he is amenable to a different p&s to replace the old one I saw a pentax iqzoom 90 wr on the auction site for $35 shipped. I used to use those on construction sites for documentation and found them to be fairly decent little cameras for a p&s. I have no connection to the seller and have not done business with him but here is the link.http://www.ebay.com/itm/PENTAX-Zoom...809992585?pt=Film_Cameras&hash=item43b5a05589
In our area, I would just take him shopping at our local thrift stores. $5 would buy any of a number of them. You could check them out for him and he could decide.
I know a fair bit about snowboarding and I have to be careful how much I steer what board my daughter gets. I will try to steer the choice towards a handful of boards that are OK and not too expensive and then I let her choose even if it is not one I am 100% crazy about (I am not keen on rockered boards if their are any shredders out there) because I know if she does not like it she will not snowboard. So if you are steering away from a camera male sure there is some buy in. Eg if he wants a yucky zoom you may want tort that ride. Most of us thought zooms were cool at some point.
If he's in high school, he is well into establishing his own identity. Right or not, that's what he wants.
You could give him a Haseelblad Super EX-Plus with f/1.2 10 - 280 mm premium zoom with 4000 guide-number nuclear flash but hey... He wants a p&s. There's nothing wrong with that. When he feels the limitation of what he has chosen, he'll be in better position to want something else and he'll appreciate it that much more.
I'm sort of against choosing the best for him based on our ideas.
I'm a highschool senior and I started out on a minolta X-700. Perfect combination of P&S, plus a little manual if you want to get fancy. The aperture indexing finally kicked the bucket on mine, but not before I took it to germany and abused it greatly.
I believe I'm the only person under 18 who regularly uses and prints from an RB67. It's a strange state of affairs.
(and before you think "entitled", I paid for all of it myself or got it for free. Worked at Waffle House for much longer than any normal human should have to.)
Let him do what I did. Mow lawns to earn the money to buy a Kodak 35, give him an old selenium meter, and let him mow more lawns to buy some Velvia.
If he can get good results with that combo, he'll be able to use anything.
I'm a highschool senior and I started out on a minolta X-700. Perfect combination of P&S, plus a little manual if you want to get fancy. The aperture indexing finally kicked the bucket on mine, but not before I took it to germany and abused it greatly.
I believe I'm the only person under 18 who regularly uses and prints from an RB67. It's a strange state of affairs.
(and before you think "entitled", I paid for all of it myself or got it for free. Worked at Waffle House for much longer than any normal human should have to.)
Meant to give you props for getting into 6x7. Take lots of pictures of your friends and the places you hang out. If you can stand it, take pictures of family too. I've found as I get on with life, the photos from the old days, are the ones I like the most.