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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.