Hi Teresa
It is all personal preference but when I was looking round a few weeks ago I decided to go with a digital tape. The main reason being that I could shoot the video, then download onto the computer, edit it and then burn a disk when I had what I wanted. I was advised by several people this was the best way to go. I am a huge Sony fan but the problem with their camcorders is that they all work from the screen which used a lot of power and gives a very poor battery life, which is a major problem if you are going to be out and about and cannot recharge the battery easily. The battery life seems to be approx 30 mins so even with a spare you will be limited to approx 1 hour. We use ours to video visits to parks etc so we can show grandparents what the kids have been upto and 1 hour just is not enough for us.