well ive been using Premiere v 6, 6.5, 7, then the newer one.... pro 1.5
I have used media100 and and Finalcut pro also... I would have to say that Premiere is still my favorite out of all of them because of the level of creativity you can maintain.
I would highly recommend you check the colleges around you to see if you can get Premiere with a student discount because I think it retails around $700
I got mine at my school for really cheap through our production dept.
If you want an easier program to use... go with Pinnacle Studio... you can't do as much, but its very user-friendly.
The easiest and most problem free way to go with video is with a mini-dv camera and a firewire connection to your comp.