1)
Audio Technica ATM61HE, dynamic mic, very good for vocals and guitars/ukes. Look for a
cardioid polar patern, this means it concertrates on picking up noise mainly infront as apposed to sides and rear. I trialed a lot of mics before settling on this one, its very clear and has a very good range, I've tried Shure mics which shops often recommend but didn't like them for vocals and gutiars/ukes.
Its through a
Toneport UX2 (don't need a soundcard with one of these), which is an extremely good and simple piece of equipment allowing you to plug multiple mics into your computer and multitrack them (record them to individual tracks in one session then individually adjust each track).
2)
Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum edition (this links to the new version I think). Video software that works in a multitrack format, very good and fairly user friendly. If you have the money everything is going HD so it would be benificial to buy an HD camera. I'm using a
Sony Handycam HDR-SR10. Handycams are great, but when you miniturise you make compromises, so they do suffer from a bit of a grainy picture, but I'm happy with it and they are fairly highly reviewed.
3)
Adobe Audition 3.0, you can get this cheap as a student on those student software websites. It is (or was last time I checked) regarded as the leading multitrack recorder in regards to sound quality and sound editing techniques by many multitrack users.
4) Bits and pieces: I'm don't tend to mess about with audio to much anymore, the only thing I do always do is put reverb on everything, it gives it that polished proffesional sound and is always worth doing.
Always edit and adjust levels/sound through speakers not headphones!
In my experiences if I put the time in, I can get better finished recordings than the local (bearing in mind these are cheap recording studios) recording studios who have masses of racks and money spued into recording equipment. So I'm really happy with it as a home recording studio that does not require ££££'s
As for quality I'm afraid for me I don't enjoy videos that are uploaded in low quality (i.e. mobile phone uploads), and the same for audio, internal speakers, it often doesn't do justice to the talant of the person performing and can take away from the enjoyment.
These are just my opinions though, people will have alternatives that work just as well or better for themselves.