Replying to What is a good replacement cam?

Getting rid of hv20 because I am tired of tapes and it's time to get into newer technology.

1) What is your budget? How much money can you spend right away, and do you think you can get more money to invest in the future?

$600 just for the camera.

2) What experience do you already have with cameras? Have you ever even used one before? Have you helped your friend out with his camera? Have you owned your own?

Got a gopro and an hv20. I want to leave tapes.

2) What gear, if any, do you currently have? (tripod, old camera lenses, mics, etc)

Got a tripod and a fisheye.

4) What are you planning to shoot and how do you want to use your camera? Are you going to use this with the sole purpose of shooting skiing? or do you think you might try other stuff as well (movies, documentaries, short films, etc)

Skiing and skiing only.

5) Do you want a camera that you can hand to your friends, that could or could not have film experience, and let them shoot you? or will you be doing all the filming?

I would like one with easy to use controls.

6) When filming skiing, how do you tend to shoot? (follow cams, leave it on record on a tripod and hike, film from a tripod, etc)

Tripod and hike, tripod shots, some follow cams.

7) What computer do you currently have/use to edit (if not currently editing, what would you most likely use)? If you can provide specifics, such as hard drive space, RAM, processor size, that would be great.

Got a Pc, i5 , 8 GB of ram , editing isn't a problem with this thing.

7) What program do you currently edit on? How familiar are you with it (1- just learning; 10- I can make tutorials and know the keyboard layout)

7 on Sony Vegas, but switching to premiere.