honestly, you cannot build a camera for the price of the stealth cam. I have said that before. The difference is in battery consumption, amount of pictures you can take, and quality of unit you can build in a digital far outways the 35mm's. now with that said, if you are in a high risk area for your camera being stolen, stealthcam is the way to go IMO. If it gets stolen then you aren't out much. Someone already said it a good digital will run you 250.00 to build which is cheaper than you can buy. trust me, build one you will wanna build more because its very addicting. hope I answered your question, be glad to help anyone interested in building a unit or answering questions about them. building a unit is kinda like fletching your own arrows. you can have the pro shop do it or you can do it yourself. it may not be cheap in the first dozen dozen arrows b/c a good bitzenburger jig will run you about 65.00 but you get the satisfaction of doing it yourself. the more you fletch, the better yours will look. the more cams you build, the faster, quicker, and better they will turn out. just my 2 cents. I get all my supplies from hagshouse.com.