How do MiniDV cameras work?

Question

I am looking to buy a Panasonic PV-GS500 camcorder, which records on MiniDV tapes. This is my first experience with MiniDV, so I was wondering how it worked. Can I film something, take it off the tape and save it as a file on my computer (to be edited later), and then record over that tape and do this process all over again. In short, can I get by with using just one tape?

Answer 1

Yes you can, though the tape will wear out over time.  In practice,  most people keep the tape as an archive once they've got something important on it.  Don't forget that MiniDV is a lightly compressed format - it takes up a lot of space on your disk drive, so keeping the video on tape is a cheap option.