Hard Drive

Hard drive camcorders, as the name suggests, are camcorders with a hard
drive built into the chassis. The primary benefit is capacity. Even
small hard drives range around 60GB, which is far larger than any tape
or DVD ever managed.  Nearly every major manufacturer offers
camcorders in this category, in both standard and high definition. The
upper-end of capacity has become something of a race. Sony appears to
be leading the pack with 240GB – that’s 29 hours of video in the
highest quality. With that much space, you’ll have no problem fitting a
whole vacation’s worth of memories.

Of course, all that space comes at a cost. The first is the “all your eggs in one basket” issue. Unless you’re diligent
about backing up to a secondary hard drive, you’re in danger of losing
all that hard-won footage. This leads to the second potential issue
with hard drives. They’re completely enclosed, but still sensitive to
drops or to water damage. And, as with all electronics, simple wear and
tear can destroy a hard drive. Fortunately, most camcorder
manufacturers see the need for backing up (as well as the profit
potential) and offer standalone DVD burners for just this purpose. If
you’re feeling a bit more tech savvy, you can simply use your computer
and some free or cheap software to the same end.