RE: Video making questions
My friend and I use his Sony DV camera. It can take digital still pictures and also has a place for a memory stick. If you download the videos directly from the computer, I cannot remember which format it is. Most cameras can use usb or firewire.
However, we prefer to download from the DV tape to the memory stick. This is in mpeg mode and seems to be higher quality, than the USB method at least. No firewire on my PC. Using this method, you can also take digital still pictures from the video. THere is a lot you can do with it, and probably a lot more than we do with it.