Being the early adopter that I am (and super huge cheapskate) I opted for the HDR-HC1 from Sony, instead of buying a different, marginally more expensive 3CCD cam.  I'm posting my full review early next week.  While on the whole, I've been pretty happy with the cam, especially for the price and size, I've been really unhappy with the feelings it gives me, particularly in the pit of my stomach.  You know that feeling, when you haven't saved your two hour documentary in 5 hours, and it crashes, or when you accidently delete a mission critical file, or in my case, losing half a second of video due to clogged heads (slash dropout, take your pick.) 

Fortunately (and semi-unfortunately,) I was on a multi-cam shoot.  Fortunately, I had enough footage to edit around the dropout.  Unfortunately, my audio was iso'd on the HDV cam.  I learned my lesson, and started isoing the audio on the other cam, which was a DV cam.

Bottom line: If you're using HDV for mission critical applications, make sure to follow all camera care guidelines, with considerable note to keeping clean heads.  Clean your heads every 8ish tapes, and make sure to use the same type of tapes.  For me, I'm using Panasonic Master dv tapes.  I know that's good camera etiquette anyway, but now it's a fact of life.  Treat your camera well, and it'll be all good in the end.

Look for more in my series of hellish video productions.