I am a member of a camcorder club and we are continually assessing the value of progressing from miniDV tapes in our camcorders to the later discs or the later still card storage. Members have found difficulties in the transferring process so we have come to the conclusion to bypass the disc models and go from tapes to card. These camcorders are only just appearing so I think your budget would have to be increased. Go for tape models until the later ones become more plentiful and cheaper than they are now.