Do you really need (or want) a DVD camcorder? Recording straight to DVD has one major plus: the convenience of being able to take a DVD straight from the camera and pop it into a DVD player or computer. But for that convenience, you've gotta deal with some other limitations:
* Camcorder DVD's can only hold 20 minutes of high-quality video, or 30 minutes of "regular quality" video. If you're recording anything longer, plan on swapping DVD's often. For comparison, a standard MiniDV tape can store 60 minutes of high quality video, and there are are also 80+ minute tapes on the market. Hard drive camcorders are limited only by the size of the hard drive installed.
* If you want to edit the footage you've filmed or transfer it to different media (like online), you'll have to import it into a computer, just like any other media type -- negating the convenience of a DVD camcorder. Video on DVD is MPEG2-compressed, which will give you lower quality source material to work from when compared to a MiniDV or hard disk camcorder. Not all video editing packages will work with DVD source material, either.
Because any of the video I film will be imported to a computer anyway, I find MiniDV and hard drive camcorders to be a whole lot more convenient than DVD. But if you just want something you can pop into your DVD player without editing, a DVD camera is the easiest way to go.