The best way I have to deal with the camera. rotate and pan the view until you get close to where you want it. Now hit control, alt, numpad 0. This will bring the camera to you. It puts you in the camera view. Now to fine tune it. Hit shif F. This will let you steer the camera. Scrolling in this mode will let you zoom in and out.  Moving the mouse  will cause the camera to swing up/down and side to side.  Hold the midle mouse button down in this mode will let you pan the cammera. When you get the cammaera where you want it just left click the mouse to exit this mode.  Oh yea and hitting the numpad 0 key will toggle you in and out of camera mode.

Hope this helps ya

Also, once the camera is roughly in the postion you want it to be, if you check the 'Lock Camera to view' option in the properties panel (N) and select NUMPAD 0 to view the scene through the camera, you can use the normal 3D view navigational keys to place the camera more precisely.

Opening your file with the 'Load User Interface' unchecked, should load your scene with the default layout.