I started out with a Trailtimer Photohunter, it is a 35 mm and It is the best 35mm Ive ever used, but I dont even know if you can get them anymore, it is about 6 years old, and has taken hundreds of rolls of film. I also tried out the cheap Stealth Cams but didnt like them at all, I had lots of problems with them, I went through 4, finally gave up. Then I tried the Moultrie 35 mm Game Spy and it worked well, but really used up batteries fast, had to replace them almost every time I changed film. I now have a Cuddeback 1.3 and I love it, it has paid for itself many times over, and is easy to use and I get around 1200 pics on a set of batteries(4 ds). If you can find someplace selling the leftover 1.3s you can get a pretty good deal, but most places are selling the new 3.0 megapixel Cuddebacks. I just got one of the new Moultrie digitals from Wal-Mart last week, So far it is super easy to operate, takes pretty good pictures, and with the rechargeable 6 volt battery it will definitely be cheap on batteries too.
I think my first recommendation would be to go with the Cuddeback, it is just a very high quality camera and I love mine so much, but if you think of the fact that you can buy about 3 or 4 of the moultries for the price of one cuddeback,, well you decide, they are both good and serve the purpose well.