You have to ask yourself: Is your dad comfortable with using a computer? Some of our folks are, some are not. If he used to be a photography hobbyist, then he must've been more used to processing film rather than going digital. But, since you asked for a cheap digital camera (370 Euro = $475?), that's what I'm going to suggest. That means the safest best is to go with SLR since it offers a lot more control compared with some of the new compacts (which mostly have issues with white balance, focusing, noise, etc) - and of course, SLR cameras allow the user to change lenses which plays a major role in photography. Heck, the type of lens that sticks to your camera easily defines the type of photos a person takes.
First thing that comes to mind:
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Rebel-T3-Di ... 274&sr=8-1Not going to go through this in detail but it does offer the full functionality of SLR cameras, it takes amazing photos, it's an "entry-level" professional camera, it's cheap, it's compatible with other canon EF lenses (and even some third-party brands), and it has a crop factor of 1.6 (which is good for people who want more "zoom", bad for us who wants more "wide"). I can't vouch for Nikon since I don't own one, but if he happens to have a few new Nikon lenses lying around, go for a Nikon d3000 -- I used a friend's before and the image qualities were just as exceptional outdoors, however, when you're shooting in low or artificial light, things tend to become quite noisy or under/overexposed since the light meter tends to be off mark a lot (blah). That and I had some bad experiences with Nikon cameras (eg. my uncle's Nikon compact which has the worst white balance ever -- correct it one second, 3 minutes later and everything's back to looking all yellow). As for personal experience with Canon's Rebel series, my girlfriend owns one and I have a 50D. It goes without saying that we can switch our lenses around, in case you're curious. Never had any issues with my 50D nor her Rebel Ti, both lets me control shutter speed, aperture, and ISO just fine. The autofocus works perfectly with USM (ultra sonic motor) and non-USM lenses, it's not completely grainy when going beyond 800 ISO, but again, if you're taking indoor shots, you need an extra wide lens to compensate for the crop factor.
As for film cameras, I own a Pentax K1000. Simple 35mm camera, good picture quality, lets you control aperture and shutter speed just fine. ISO or rather ASA, is on the film. Nikon FE is another suggest I'd throw out there for this category. But you have to make sure your dad has a lot of spare time for this hobby since he has to go to a dark room or build one, review the negatives, then print them out, in order to see the final image -- which might be tedious for some, and fun for others.
tl;dr = Canon Rebel T3
