Cheap filming equipment

I'm looking for a video camera that is fairly cheap that can do a few simple things. I basically just want to be able to film my riding for critiquing reasons. I just want something that is about the quality (or a little better) than the video from a digital camera. My dig camera takes video that's good enough for my standards but it eats my memory and the video gets cut pretty short. I also want to be able to film an entire run continously.

What should I look for and how much should I expect to spend?

And as a side note question when you guys who film from the boat, do you use tripods or do you just hold them?

And as another side note I may possibly want to make a youtube quality set of the week video of myself with simple editing. What would be a good simple video editing program?

For a camera you might wanna try the HD Sony Handycam which is around $1000, or you can just get a simple handycam which will only be around $400 but you can't really do much besides film. As for editing software it depends what kind of computer you have. iMovie is really easy to jump into but you can still do alot, but that is only for Mac.

Hope this helps

simple editing program
mac = imovie (free)
pc = windows movie maker (free)

a tad more complex
pc = adobe premiere elements (on sale $79)

a lot more complex
mac = final cut pro
pc = adobe premiere pro

as for cameras, if they're all for the web, you're better off saving your money and getting a 3-chip cam. they're reeeeally cheap now (relatively speaking). a lot are way under $500. look into panasonic stuff. the colors from panasonic cams can't be touched.

*iso hunt = whatever you want, free

I have the sony hdr-sr10. I love it. You can choose the quality you want and it will go up to 1080i but it uses a lot of memory to do that. I bought an Imac after I bought the camera and a time capsule external hard drive for the Imac. Imovie is great and I can store all me videos on the time capsule and not use memory on my computer. The time capsule is wireless so I can also use it one my PC laptop.

I also use a tripod when filming from the boat. Well my wife is the camera operator and I got here a tripod because she shakes like a crack feen. I wish I had a video to show you a good example. But Imovie would work great for what you want to do. You just choose the clips you want, throw in a few transitions, click a song from your itunes library and done. You can edit a day on the lake in like 10minutes. The hardest part is picking songs.

Hope this helps.

i wouldn't recommend a tripod when filming from the boat.