Need help picking out a camera

[BlacktopTravelr]

I have been watching the ants rebuild their ant hills after each rain and they aren't your typical ant hills. So I got the thought to make a book, coffee table photojournal, about the different types of ant hills. Some of these ant hills even have a walk space made in them so the ants don't have to crawl over the hill.

There are a couple I have been watching that are built in the same place after each rain, but most aren't. There is even one that was built around a plant with the plant in the middle of the hill. I had never seen that before. So what I need is some suggestions on the type of camera, cheap if possible, to get to take these closeup pics of an anthill. Maybe for book 2 I can get a more expensive camera.

[BlacktopTravelr]

Thanks Keith, I never would have thought of that. [space] [emoji106] [space]

[Suzuki Johnny]

Ants hereabouts will usually build a mound with a plant of some sort as it's center....the bigger the plant the bigger the hill..
Someone told me that they do that to use the root system as a guide of sorts.

[Ron Zee]

Lots of old digital cameras at tag sales too. Some of them can get pretty close up and if the thing gets messed up, hey, only a couple bucks at the sale. I got one today for a dollar. I have another one that'll even take time-lapse pictures.

[BlacktopTravelr]

Now that time-lapse thing is what I need... set it and forget it. That way I can see the hill built almost from the beginning.