Storage Space and Availability

• Storage space provides a mixed set of pros and cons for hard drive- and flash card-based camcorders. First, consider if you had one of each type of camera -- one hard drive in the one, and a single flash drive for the other. Future advances in solid state storage notwithstanding, the hard drive could easily have many multiples more space than the flash drive -- a clear advantage for the hard drive. But if you think about it, the flash memory camcorder actually has the potential for a staggeringly large amount of storage space, depending on how many flash memory cards the operator carries with him. A hard drive camcorder will always be limited by the upper limit of said drive's capacity. And, if you bring the potential for advancements in storage space back into the equation, the flash memory camera operator can always purchase larger flash drives as they become available; a hard drive camcorder operator would need to buy a new camera.
  
  But the flip side of flash memory's swap-ability is that a camera operator could pack up his camcorder and head all the way to a shoot, only to find that he left his memory card at home. A hard drive camcorder operator never has that problem -- as long as he remembers his camera.
  
  

Data Organization

• Imagine you're shooting a feature-length movie over several weeks. You have to track and organize multiple scenes. With both hard disk and flash memory camcorders, each uninterrupted shot is recorded as a single file, which can be transferred to a computer for editing. Once on a computer, you can organize the clips in your file explorer for ease of accessibility -- but if you're working with a hard disk camcorder, that's the only time you can organize your clips. Working with a flash memory camcorder, you can organize your clips onto different memory cards. That comes in handy if you shoot multiple scenes in a day; you can put the shots from one scene on one card, and the shots from the other on another. The portability of the flash storage method can be a bane as well as a boon. You can't misplace an internal hard drive as easily as you can lose a small, removable memory card.
  
  

Storage Corruptibility

• Both hard disk drives and flash memory cards are susceptible to data corruption, either due to a software error or physical damage. It can be temporary or permanent depending on the situation, but it will cause the presently stored data to be lost. If the corruption is permanent, which would you rather have -- an internal storage method that can't be easily replaced, or one where you can swap the problematic storage out for a fresh device? Flash memory has a clear advantage in that respect.
  
  

Data Transference

• Camera operators can transfer video files to a computer by cable with both hard disk and flash memory camcorders. The method takes time, as the data takes moves from one autonomous device to another. With a flash memory camcorder, an operator has the option to install a card reader on his computer, adding the flash memory to its repertoire of storage devices and speeding up data transference.