Steve, no this is not a cliff hanger thread, seems like it though. This idea just sprang up on the pages of the thread with no planning and we're flying by the seat of our pants!
@ tradtusker, probably the cheapest camera would be an Olympus D380 or D370 but this cam has a love-hate operation. Love the instant trigger, hate the memory prices and the flash is so so. These go for $5 to $25 are considered workhorses and are very reliable. I have built cams with a pelican 1020 case with this cam, 5.31"x3.56"x1.68". Thats pretty small! The sony S600 and probably the sony P32 and P41 will fit into a pelican 1010(4.37x2.87x1.68)! P32's go anywhere for $20 to $60 on auction sites.
@ VTer, The first feature a camera needs is the ability to be hacked. Then there's flash cap recharging speed, flash range, and memory writing speed.
I'm no expert on these, I just think it's a fun hobby and the results are, IMHO, better than 99% of store bought cams. I'll try to focus the build on the things I found confusing and how I got through those. I'll show examples of different builds later so one can get ideas. Thanks for the interest!