Built-in camera audio stinks. Always. One major problem is that if you ever shoot hand-held, the camera body transmits every single touch and movement of your hands to the mic, which sounds terrible. Camera mics basically are good for ambient audio when you're shooting with a tripod -- that's it.

Always use an external mic, at minimum a decent shotgun mic, or on occasion a lavalier. Don't skimp on sound, unless you plan to dub everything over or use your footage for music videos where spoken sound doesn't matter. On that note, you'll want a camera that supports external mics, preferably one with XLR inputs.

Good audio makes even lackluster video watchable. Bad audio makes even well-shot video unwatchable.

Buying a camera on eBay is strictly caveat emptor territory. I recommend that you buy a camera from a reliable dealer (B&H is great) who will provide you with reliable advice, refund your money if there is a problem, and who will give you extended warranty coverage if desired.

And if you try to edit with Flash, you'll just make the Baby Jesus cry. Please get a real editing app, and save yourself -- and those you turn to for advice like us -- the extra trouble. I can't recommend Final Cut enough.

One thing people might overlook with re: to Ebay is that there ALOT of companies that deal strictly with professional A/V equipment that put their overstock/overuns on the site for sell at a set price. Th3ey are very reputable dealers and some offer buy back guarantees, and if the equipment is new-in-box the manufactuer warranties will always apply as well. Going this route, I have never had any problems. B&h is a great company, if you want to spend 20% more than what most other retailers will charge for the same camera. They have everything, so it's a good place to research a purchase. They do have monthly discount deals, usually on discontinued items. You will definitely want external mic(s), preferably both wireless and wired for different situations, and XLR inputs on the camera
Since you are already on a PC, check the new SpeedEdit software by NewTek. It is very easy to use, handles multiple video formats within the same timeline (avi,wmv,mpeg,flash,mov,mjpeg,pal,ntsc,hd,hdv,sd), renders faster than any other software on the market to any format/resolution you will need, includes 1000's of transitions and CG/graphics capability, and only costs $500 for the software. There are also additional plug-ins available for full motion 3d graphics/text as well (LightWave). You may need to upgrade your current system a little bit to optimize, but in my opinion this program on the right system blows FCP out of the water. I use it on broadcast video projects all the time without waiting around half of my day for renders.

Oh my goodness! Well thanks Allen - looks like some great stuff - although I admit, a little hard to know where to begin. I think I'll be making a trip to the bookstore as well as the video equipment retailer -- 'video production for dummies' comes to mind! Seriously, while online tutorials are great, I think getting 1 or 2 good general references would be helpful. ...and maybe a SpeedEdit Manual? There's probably a better choice than the dummy book however - any suggestions for general reference books on video production??

Thanks again.