I always thought the tapes were crap. I have spent hours of time trying to get footage of my children onto a disc for parents to watch. I tried so hard that the tape broke and now no longer have certain footage.
I thought HDD was the way to go, surely tape cant be better than HDD, can it ?
IMO Tape is the way, mostly for the reasons stated by Shirker.
I was asked the very same question the other day and I suggested Tape and not HDD, they bought HDD. Time will tell whether or not they'll regret not taking my advice.
Each to their own tho.
MTC