Dude, You need to get yourself a firewire port. Full quality video streams to fast for USB and therefore you can't capture and edit on most PC's
Nearly all Digital camcorders come with a DVOut port with you hook up a Firewire to and edit through that.
As for a camera, start off cheap but go for a Mini-DV one, its the best standard format to use, and picture quality is great. Don't worry too much about buying expensive ones at this point cos the budget ones do a great job none the less and usually come with good features anyway.
Look at the £200- £300 range about $250 -$400