Camcorder: Mini-DV vs HDD

We have a 10 year old Hi8 camcorder and plan, sometime, to get a more modern one. For some reason we assumed a hard disk based one was the way to go, e.g. I replaced my Walkman with an MP3 player.

I recently read an article in the NY Times that placed a doubt in my mind. The journalist was advocating mini-DV over hard-disk based camcorders for the following reasons.

1. Physically, mini-DVs require less space. He reckoned his drawerful of tapes would require multiple external hard drives which cost more, as secondary storage, and consume more storage space in your home.
2. Any hard-disk based camcorder utilises some form of image compression for storage. This leads to a reduction in quality.
3. Mini-DV tapes will 'decompose' over time but so too will secondary hard drives. In addition, external hard drives are prone to disk errors.

Does anyone here have any informed views over the pros and cons of mini-DV camcorders, versus HDD ones ?

mini-dv. Cheap. best quality around. easy to convert to your computer so no depreciation. Reccommend the sony handy cam. Go for picture quality plus good in dim lights.

Have you considered going for a video camera which records onto a SD card?

Go for the minidv, you only need to buy a handful of tapes and you can transfer the the data to your pc or an external hard disk which takes care of the deterioration and the storage issue