WTB: Cheap beat up DSLR (Nikon preferred)

[Jiggerachi]

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.

[Jiggerachi]

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



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.

[sammm]

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

[QuantumBeep]

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

[Jiggerachi]

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

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.

[sammm]

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.

[QuantumBeep]

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.

[Jiggerachi]

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.