Go the Pal model, what are you going to be videoing ? mini dv tapes are re usable a number of times (i have never tested how many) but each time you use them the front of the tape stretches till it becomes unusable, so they cannot be used indefinately. in fact if given the choice i would by a much cheaper camera, like the panasonic gs120 and only use tapes once or twice but again this comes back to what you are filming and why.