That is an amazing timelapse!! Absolutely freaking amazing!! There's not too many people who can do that!!
-Sean-

This little camera is quite amazing and might fit your budget:
www.goprocamera.com/index.php?area=2&productid=29
for $300US it's a bargain for what it can do:
Capture Modes: Single shot, photo every 2, 5, 10, 30 or 60 secs.; 3 photo burst; self-timer,
# 1080p (30 fps): 4h 21m
# 960p (30 fps): 5h 26m
# 720p (60 fps): 4h 21
# 720p (30 fps): 8h 09m

Waterproof Camera Housing, Depth Rating: Up to 180 feet / 60 meters
Dimensions (H x W x D): 1.6” x 2.4” x 1.2” (42mm x 60mm x 30mm)
Weight: 3.3oz (94g) incl. battery, 5.9oz (167g) incl. housing

I might get one of these just for a toy/crash cam but the quality is not really "sellable" unless of course you are the only person on earth with that very very rare shot
Good luck

I can defiantly do $300. If it can do every it says it can than that is a good deal.

But like you said, it does look kink of 'toy like'. It doesn't even have a screen. I get why it would be great if you were sky diving, or surfing like in the videos they had.

But now that I think of it, the weather proof shell would be great for shooting time-lapse.

I don't know. I will keep it in mind. I will look around and post any that I think might me good enough.

Thanks again Fathom!

For all these great ideas, heres another karmaa

I think I have found a pretty good camera here. I checked quickly and saw that it is selling for around $300 also.

What do you guys think of it?

The Go Pro 960 HD hero is great for time lapse

Well, if I'm not wrong Sean, you already have a DSLR by now right?
I got a D5100 last November and I chose it over the T3i because it has a intervalometer function built in. You can customize the nunmber of shots and the time between those shots, so it's pretty handy.
I've been using a couple of free software that are out there to edit the timelapses.

The first one is Photolapse, which can take the pictures you shot and arrange them into a timelapse. Then you can set the FPS, the type of file (avi, mpeg, etc) and the size of the video (1080p, 2k, 4k, etc.)

The second one I use to add the soundtrack and do some editing if necessary is Videopad.
Both softwares are very simple to use and provide great quality.

Wow, this sure is an old thread! I remember posting it, back when I knew absolutely nothing about photography. So much can change in just two years. haha

Yes, I do have a DSLR now. I've had my T1i for over a year now and really enjoy it! I actually bought it a while after the T2i was announced, because the price came down considerably because of that. I was able to buy I nicer lens than the kit lens because of it.

The way I do time lapses now is a little more time consuming than I would have hoped, but the results are better than I had even hoped two years ago!

First, I use my intervalometer (which was only around $15) to set the time of intervals. I set my camera to manual as to stop any flickering, or awkward light changes. I also take all my pictures in RAW, even though this takes up an insane amount of memory, my 16gig SD card can hold quite a bit. ;D

Then I import all those photos in to Lightroom, which is what I use to edit all my photos. (This can take a while!) Then I edit one RAW picture the way I like, crop to 16:9 and then apply the settings to all the rest of the pictures. (Usually doesn't take much time)

After that, I make a "slide show" but at 720p and 30fps then export the slide show. (This takes forever if I remember correctly. I usually just start it then go to bed. )

Finally, I just stick it into a video editor and make the video how I want. I usually just use movie maker. Terrible, I know. I'll have to try out Videopad, Lucas! I think this also makes it easier to upload to youtube, but I don't remember exactly. I actually haven't done a time lapse in a while because of school. :/

Sometimes all the work discourages me from doing a time lapse, but by doing it this way, I can get time lapses that look just as good as my still photos and it is always worth it afterwords.

Anyways, sorry for the long post! I am somewhat doing this for myself, so in case I forget or something. But I felt it was worth sharing anyways.

Edit: Here was the first time lapse I made trying it this way. It actually is probably my favorite so far.

Love that light ray toward the end, Sean.

Beautiful.

Thanks Jo! Yeah, it was a nice surprise.