I have a Panasonic Mini-DV tape video camera that can take photos too (stored on an SD chip), but the resolution of both was not very good and the tapes are bulky (but not nearly so bulking as VHS, etc.), expensive and the plastic dust cases break too easily and the tapes are not playable in anything else I have and ... well just not something that I found convenient. The still photos were just not good enough and took a long time (5 to 20 seconds) to store on the SD chip in the camera.
I used to use a Pentax K-1000 for still photos and I really like using film for photos, but the better film processing/developing places have all gone away and I don't like mailing the film off for processing nor do I like the results of the automated machines in the stores (youngsters that run them don't really know what they are doing).
So I bought a new still camera, kind of on a whim. An Optimus 6-megapixel (thats a Radio Shack brand). I bought a 4 Gig SD chip to put in it as it will only hold 2 or 3 photos in the internal memory without it. I then found that it would take movies also and they are better than the Mini-DV camera can do. So it has become my "everything" camera and I am pleased with it. I do wish it had a better lense system and maybe better resolution and was a bit faster in storing photos and, well, I am sure I could add to that list of "I wishes", but for the price and my abilities it works okay.
The SD chip is great and 4-gig holds thousands of photos. I don't have any idea how much video it can hold, but right now it has several 30 second videos as well as over 100 photos with lots of room for more.
As to processing the videos. It is very easy to transfer them to my PC, either by a USB cable or by removing the SD chip and plugging it into a USB chip reader device...either way the chip just becomes another mass storage device on the PC and I can transfer files between it and the PC Harddrive as easily and as quickly as copying files around on the Harddrive itself.
Like still photo processing software, there are several programs available to process movies and dozens of formats to save them in. Also like photo processing programs I have yet to find a movie processor that does everything I want and does it intuitively and without hassle. Each has some strength and each has some failing.
I have:
Panasonic Movie Messenger System: My oldest program (came with the Mini-DV camera) and so it has the fewest output formats. Operation is somewhat confusing and cumbersom. Difficult to select exactly where to split a video so sections can be deleted. Also if I am not careful it can get the sound and video out of sync and I have yet to figure out what it is that I did that screwed it up.
Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker: Has probably the best human interface, but is still confusing and cumbersom. Also has the most output formats, but if you don't know exactly what each was designed for and why to use each it is just so much more confusion.
MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 14: Similar to Windows Movie Maker, but fewer output formats and some are a bit confusing as to how to get to them. It wants to use a proprietary format for all output, but if you pick "Export" instead of "Save Movie" you can get the other formats.
I have used many others and tossed them as being all hype and no substance or ability.
All of them are big on screwing up the video... blur it, fuzz it, distort it, false color it, etc., big on artsy fancy smancy transitions from one cut to another, etc., but none of them can take a poor movie and do anything but make it worse. None have a decent single frame at a time mode for selecting where to make transitions or edits. None can do an overall brighten or contrast adjustment in a decent manner. They all also want to work in "Projects" and I just don't think that way. They want to build a list of bits and pieces of many videos and transitions and photos and then combine them into one video. If you then delete, move or modify one of those parts the "Project" won't load right. I just want to take one video, clean it up (brighten/contrast etc. and sound cleaning) and remove the junk (those parts where I forgot to actualy stop the recording and I have 5 minutes of my feet as I wander around looking for the next thing to record) and output it again for pleasant viewing.
All claim to be the BEST, but none is worth the price, even the ones I got for free.
The people that write these programs get all caught up in "Look at all these WILD things we can do to jazz it up and obscure any ability to actually SEE what the video is showing" and spend no time at perfecting any of the abilities or how to accomplish the task of making a movie.
One more puzzling thing about all of them... I have yet to be able to take a raw movie from one of my cameras, read it in to a program and then write out a new movie that is the same size picture with the same resolution, the same clarity, and get the same size output file. The file often doubles in size and yet the image is smaller, fuzzyer and distorted and the sound "hollow and echo-ey". Just trmming the ends off of a video will result in a bigger file. Makes no sense.
If I could keep only one of the editors I have, it would be either the Windows Movie Maker or the MAGIX Movie Edit, but I am NOT recommending either one.
When you buy the camera, you might get a video editor with it and it will be a starting place. I think Windows Movie Maker comes with Microsoft Office, so you might have it (or some crippled cousin of it). Either one will let you do some edits if you can make sense of the way to do it and can find an output format that fits your needs.
It is unfortunate that they are so expensive that I cannot buy a copy of all the different ones and keep just the one that does what fits my abilities and undestanding. I'd like to "test drive" them for more than the time limit that some give for "Trial periods" (not near enough time to LEARN the program)... some of the ones I have tossed may have been great and might have all the capabilities I want but I didn't have time to learn the new vocabulary that they created to explain their processes.
Others will have different opinions and your mileage may vary.