One of the hottest trends in camcorders is the use of hard disk drives as built-in memory.
It lets you record several hours of video footage without having to worry about changing tapes or, in some cases, DVDs.
Many companies, including JVC and Sanyo, have hard disk drive camcorders on the market.
Japanese electronics giant Sony is getting in on the act with the SR100. It's the company's first model equipped with a built-in 30GB hard disk drive.
Sony is considered a latecomer to the market but it has bided its time and packed the SR100 with a number of impressive features.
One of the SR100's coolest functions is its ability to record in Dolby Digital 5.1 channel surround sound. This makes the camcorder capable of recording sound that, when played back with video, imitates the experience of watching a movie in a cinema.
Dolby Digital 5.1 uses five distinct channels to capture sound in front of you, to the front left and front right of you, and to the rear left and rear right - hence the surround sound. But you'll need a home theatre television set that has speakers in those five directions to make full use of the feature.