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The Digital-8 I believe does a similar transcode as the Digital Betacam on a smaller scale and going digital gives perfect timing by nature. In retrospect it's too bad the Digital-8 format didn't make it past the consumer market before the other DV formats took center stage. I have both DVCAM and DVCPRO and they run a much smaller head than the original 8MM. Timing isn't so much an issue here as it is dropout count, personally I feel the later DV format relies too much on the memory to fill in the dropouts than if it was mechanically more robust. It doesn't take much to cause a digital blip with the smaller tapes, far less than the Digital-8 which was back compatible with the Video-8 & High-8. Guess Sony was onto something here.
I can't speak for the VHS camcorders as I have always gone to great lengths to avoid the format in general but Panasonic did have some high end "prosumer" decks in the NV model line that had a very good TBC. As the format itself was geared for the home market very little was developed and refined for the more demanding broadcast and production arenas, unfortunately it takes more than a good TBC to bring the format to a level required for prime use.
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