Programmable Camera

Use a cheap digital camera. A wood frame using the tripod mount, would be cost effective. Mount a actuator [ power doorlock solenoid] & programmable timer [ A sprinkler timer comes to mind ] to "press the button". Doing all this will require more battery than most cameras have. A cordless drill battery would probably do the trick. Depending on what kind of junk you have laying about you may already own all the components.

Cheap, self-contained, digital cameras usually won't take 200 pictures without battery changes, if they will store that many, but some cheap USB surveillance cameras with the right software will allow you to take time-lapse photos and store them on the hard drive.

Sounds like the old bank holdup cameras - Mosler Safe had a 16 mm one in the 1970's that could be set to shoot at chosen intervals, and would go into a faster mode (still less than movie rate) if an alarm were triggered. Question is: where would such a thing be found today? eBay? I think they ran on AC, but a car battery & cheap inverter would do the trick. Storage would be archival, and frame sequence guaranteed.

Cameras are available for monitoring wildlife activity and are usually motion sensitive, but some may be able to be timed. See weblink for example http://www.sportsmansguide.com/cb/cb.asp?a=278141

My old analog video camera can be set to take one frame at a time, triggered by a set of NO switch contacts. Don't know if this is enough resolution for your application, but it sure would be cheap.

author feedback?: If there was a car 12v battery supply or ac supply are there any options. COmputer is out of question. take a snap every 5mins and store for a day. please let me know. resolution even if low and b&w not an issue.

Take a look at the IP camera range, they are specially designed for this tasks. Interesting is the Mobotix stuff. You can couple the camera to a network and program it to send a picture every 5min to an FTP server, or keep it in its memory. Will cost you more than $100 but you know that it works. All you need is a network connection. And I think that this may be tricked.

In Industrial premises,public roads etc we come across surveilance cameras used for plant security,traffic safety provided at strategic locations.Same way,the cameras are located at Departmental stores,Railway stations,Airports etc.Such cameras can be used for the application required by you.Please check.