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Don't get too excited about the tripod/monopod that is bundled with this offer. Canon's Vixia series provides HD quality filming in a small package. Probably not as cheap as you can find it, but all around a decent price.

I am not crazy about minidv. Takes to long to capture on the computer. Needs to be something that transfers fast. sd or hdd

Tape is so 20th century.

How is tape digital? I don't get it.

#4 - it writes the digital signal (1's and 0's) to the tape. Similar to a tape drive from 20 years ago.

#2 - tape is far superior to hdd and sd, it can record at a higher density so that you get more time at much higher quality. The output is editable (not so with HDD camcorders as they record in a format that has significant quality loss when rewritten) And HDD on camcorders die much easier than tapes do. Aside from the p2 tapeless HD video cameras from panasonic, or the RED all high quality cameras still record to tape. Tapes are better.

Absolutely #5.
I got the camera from the Dell coupon dell $588 + $40 tax last week & love it. Really wanted a hard drive/card camcorder, but if you want to do anything more that play for the camcorder to the tv, go with hard drive type.

The fact that if you're like me, I don't immediately transfer my video to dvd with requires a computer or stand alone recorder. There is NOTHING WORSE than running out of disc space and having to decide on the spot what stays or gets deleted!

I can at least take it out and pop in another tape. You'll need a bluray disc to hold the quality and information that a tape can hold. (compression)

Editing makes your video "watch-able" to people other than yourself! You can't do that with the hard drive format. (at least not without problems). Hard drives are not that reliable over the long haul right now. You have to be very careful with bumping those things around.

Bottom line hard drive & card based camcorders are good for the "causal" user. Anything more, better keep the tape rolling.