I'm not sure about cameras, but you might want to look for an old version of Premiere: sometimes I've seen them for sale cheap, for example when people have bought a video capture card which comes with Premiere and they already own it. Just make sure it's unregistered if you want to be able to upgrade it at some point in the future if you make a lot of videos.

thanks; ill have a look on ebay. anyone else got any ideas?

in regards to editing software, for that price range i would have to suggest getting a copy of Pinnacle Studio 9. it costs around ?50 and has a lot of features on it aswell as being easy to use.
as for cameras, there are quite a few out there now for that price range but the question is, will you need a dv in socket? the worst thing is transferring all your footage onto your computer, editing it and then realising that you can't transfer it back, believe me! in which case if you do need it you may have to save up an extra ?100-200. if i was to suggest any camera though i would go with a panasonic one. i've always used them and they've been good to me.
hope this helps and good luck.

thanks for the help - i recently obtained a copy of premiere pro 7.0 so i think i will give that a go... im considering the JVC GR-D73 which has dv in and out ports as well as manual focus and audio input / output - the only problem is it is 1 ccd, but its the best i can afford at the moment. you can see it at http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/42706/art/jvc/camescope-minidv-gr-d73e.html?article=42706&affiche=accessoire#fichetechnique

I think that's the one a friend bought to use as a cheap DV deck for his PC. I haven't really seen any footage other than live on the LCD, but the picture looked OK for a 1CCD camera.