Replying to Looking for a Beginner Camera.

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?

My budget right now is about $350, and I could spend more in the future, maybe a year after purchase depending on the item.

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?

I am  novice, maybe not even that. I'm a beginner. I have a point/shoot camera, and I've been using it for things that it is not suited for, and I feel like it's time to upgrade. I have used a camera before, but know that I have virtually zero skill.

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

Tripod, gorillapod, will most likely be investing in a mic, but maybe not. I will also be getting a cam caddie for filming.

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)

I will be using it for action sports film and photography, and stills/walkaround. I will make ski/longboard edits and I will set up a tripod and get some nice stills too. This will also be my everyday/walkaround camera.

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 will probably not be doing all the filming, but it hardly matters since I'm a newb.

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)

I'm not entirely sure. What I plan on doing is tripod shots and some follow cams. hiking is pretty much reserved for longboarding since I'm alone a lot, but that will be minimal.

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.

Macbook laptop. Don't know the deets though.

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)

Imovie - 8
Photoshop CS6 - 8