Since you have a laptop, it could be fairly easy. First question is, does your laptop have a port on the side of it like this:
If so, you can buy an external firewire port/card that looks like this:
I can't remember where I ordered mine from, but I think it only cost around $20. I'll see if I can dig up where I got mine from. It just plugs in there, and then has the three firewire ports and sticks out the side of your comp like so:
From there, it is really easy to use. Once you plug in your camera and turn it on, it automatically syncs up and you just open the video using whatever program you like. For the basic editing I do, I just use Windows Movie Maker since it came already installed on my laptop.
