It is worth going high def these days. I have both a Sony which uses only a 30 gig memory, and a Canon which uses Mini DV tapes. I prefer the Canon, because, I can archive the original tape, and then do my editing.
On the other hand, you can buy a DVD recorder which will run directly off the Sony (and other digital Video cameras) and record directly to DVDs, with high def quality (may require a computer of Blue Ray player to get that quality on play back).
Another option which my daughter uses is the FLIP. These are in-espensive, and are 720 P resolution--which is very good. These download directly to your computer and can be burned to standard DVD's or played thru the computer or a flash drive.
