I mostly left this forum as my interests shifted toward LF-only, but I have to chime in (and then maybe reverberate for a couple more posts) here:
The history of the F-mount is complicated. Lots of weird compatibility issues. But to put it simply, what you need to worry about (besides FX/DX issues, which are obvious) are pre-AI lenses, AI and AIS lenses, and G lenses.
Pre-AI lenses are old, metal, fully manual lenses with a single aperture ring located directly above a bare metal coupler. The metal coupler mates with a prong on the camera body, which then communicates with the camera (as you focus wide open) what f-stop you're exposing for and what f-stop the lens will briefly transition to when you take a photo. Virtually all lenses on modern system cameras are designed to meter and focus wide open, so this was a fairly primitive way of doing that--no batteries (except the tiny battery for the ttl meter) required! These date back to like 1959-1977.
AI and AIS lenses look basically the same as pre-AI lenses (and are also manual focus), but they have a tiny aperture scale engraved under the main scale and directly under the little metal prong. The metal in the lens body surrounding the mounting ring is also shaved down differently, but that's a little harder to notice. Anyhow, the AI and AIS lenses couple directly with the mount on the camera body (but also have an external coupler for older cameras) and provide the same (actually, better) wide-open metering functionality as with the coupler, but in a cleaner, more automated way. (The coupler is a pain and sometimes aligns wrong.) These are basically any manual focus lenses made in 1977 and after. It's possible to convert a pre-AI lens to an AI lens but some conversions are better than others.
G lenses are autofocus lenses without a manual aperture ring. You have to adjust the aperture through the camera body. You can't do much with one of these on an older body.
Okay, so why does all this matter? Because pre-AI lenses, unless they are modified correctly, can damage the AI ring on some dSLRs, which is a very very bad thing. You also can't adjust the aperture on G lenses with a fully manual camera body. My advice, if you don't have any pre-AI or G lenses? Don't buy any unless you're okay with them working on only one camera. Granted, pre-AI lenses won't damage some entry-level dSLRs or a Canon camera using a Nikon adapter, as they all lack AI prongs, but they won't meter very well on them either (stop down metering on Nikon bodies, slight overexposure on some Canon bodies).
There's a ton of nuance to this: different functionality between AI and AIS and AIP; which lenses meter with standard metering, which with stopped-down metering, which with matrix metering; that some lenses won't even mount on the F4 and newer cameras; which dSLRs can use which lenses; etc. So it would be really helpful to know what dSLR and what lenses you have to start with! We're not just nosy.
As for what camera to buy, it's up to you and all the above suggestions are nice. But "no battery" is nothing to aspire to. You'll need a battery for the light meter with ANY Nikon camera. My recommendation would then be an F3, I guess, although if you have pre-AI lenses the F2 might be better. The F2 can function with no battery, it only loses metering, but external meters are such a pain for 35mm cameras. You're shooting on a tiny format because you want speed and portability; don't sacrifice that by using an external meter, especially if you shoot in natural light. I use an external meter with my Nikon F and it works okay, but what a pain. If you shoot slides, you might even want an F4 or better. The F4 and F5 have AMAZING meters. The F4 is the best Nikon camera ever because it has a retractable AI prong and therefore the best compatibility of all. I had to sell mine since it was ruining my exposure technique, though.
If you get a camera with a mechanical shutter, make sure it works accurately. Somewhere in the shutter speed range (around 1/15th of a second) the mechanism changes...so you can have a camera that's highly accurate between 1/30th-1/500th of a second but useless at 1 second. I have such a camera. With an electromagnetically controlled shutter, your battery doesn't last quite as long but your exposures should be way more accurate and you won't need a CLA to recalibrate your shutter. So unless you have a ton of pre-AI lenses to start with, I've got to recommend an F3, FA, or FE-era camera. I think those have electronic shutters but are otherwise fully manual. Not sure.
Here's a good article on all this:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/nikortek.htm#ai
If any of that contradicts what I've written, I'm probably wrong. He's right that AI lenses are great deals, too. The good ones are really sharp.
