WTB: Cheap beat up DSLR (Nikon preferred)

I've been wanting to to a lot of star-trail & time lapse experiments lately and don't want to put half a million photos worth of wear & tear on my wife's new d3100 that we bought for family photos. Will also be taking it to mexico this summer.

I'm looking for basically a beat up, worn out DSLR that I can sling around mexico while piss-drunk and not worry about. My only criteria are that it still takes good photos and is cheap. Nikon because I'd like to share lenses between cameras. I don't care about MP ratings or anything, and I have a remote shutter so the camera would need a GPS port to plug into, I would think most Nikons have these.

Looking to spend under $100 for the body, more with lens, if this is even remotely possible. I already have the standard 18-55mm, so maybe don't need that one unless it was included & cheap.

Any advise would also be appreciated in my hunt. I'm just trolling the waters here to see if anyone needs a reason to upgrade, before I roll the dice with broken crap on craigslist.

Oh and since this is my thread here's a shameless plug for one of my proud videos shot with the gopro.

http://youtu.be/fzxJoJ6Babs&fmt=22

The few i've shot with the d3100, while they were lame on content, the quality was stunning. So now I'm wanting to kick it up a notch. The trusty gopro is still ace for throwing up on the roof in a storm though.

Don't rule out a Micro 4/3 camera in your search.

Under $100 is pushing it, but under $150 is not hard:
http://www.adorama.com/US%20%20%20%20562663.html

And here's their list of used Canon cameras:
http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?o...rice&Startat=1

Alternate source:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search...49&srtclk=sort

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sammm

Don't rule out a Micro 4/3 camera in your search.

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The main reason for SLR for me is more the greater flexibility with shutter manipulation, i.e. bulb mode, etc. I'm not real familiar with 4/3s, but I do have a really good panasonic point & shoot. What advantages aside from the obvious lens flexibility do they offer? I've actually always wondered about them, they look pretty sharp.

Thanks for the links, i'll check them out later. I know $100 is pushing it, if nothing comes up i'll go $150 + extras, but approaching $200 is kinda defeating the purpose.

A 4/3's is basically an SLR without the prism (making it more compact). You can change lenses and go full manual mode if you want to. I bought this one (used) last year and have been very happy with it.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympusepl1

I attached a few sample pics I took that have been shrunk down from their original resolution.

My camera is a 4/3 (Olympus E-P1). It has bulb shutter (and manual shutter up to multiple minutes). The missing features (relative to a typical SLR) are TTL flash, some physical durability, and focal length - because there's no prism to deal with, the focal length is about half of a typical SLR. This means that you get about twice the depth-of-field for a given aperture compared to, say, an EF-mount lens.

The image quality is fantastic and they're really compact, but no way you're getting a decent setup for less than a few hundred dollars.

http:/www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-D40x-Body-NO-RESERVE-/390604755366?pt=Digital_Cameras&hash=item5af1db91a 6

Nikon d40. Yea or nay? One sold for $50 body only an hour ago and missed it damn it.