I kinda wish I'd waited for these flash camcorders to jump on the HD bandwagon. I have an HV20 that records on DV tapes. It's fine, it just takes forever to transfer it to the computer since it's 1-1.
Anyway, I think refurbished is perfectly fine. You still get a 1 year warranty so if any issues should pop up, you will be protected. Plus, Canon has great customer service so I'm sure they will take of you if anything comes up.
I have a one year old imac with iMovie 8 that I use for editing. It's simple enough that it's easy to use, but has a lot of features built into it. I just finished making a wedding video for a friend of mine and they were very happy with the video.
I'm not sure if you've already read this, but camcorderinfo is a great site for reviews:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...view-37333.htm
Good luck!