In the age of memory cards it’s no wonder that Sony HD DVC tapes survive. The quality of the video, including the sound, is better than with memory cards when I record video with my Canon mini HV 10 camcorder. I’m contrasting this output with the video I record with a memory card on my Leica V-Lux 20 camera. No black spots develop on the tape the way they can so easily do using memory cards in the Leica. I made the mistake of using an eye-fi card in my Leica which destroyed my videos and snapshots for about twelve hours of one day before I caught it. I’ve never found a “lemon” Sony tape that eats videos. You can put these tapes on your computer and store them on a special shelf on the wall. They last for years. But if you try to save video or snapshots on a memory card, it goes bad much faster. Clearly tapes are still superior for taking videos.I tried a 76-day experiment last summer on my trip to Europe. Sony came out smelling like roses.
Note: I have two shelves in my living room storing nearly 200 video tapes, especially ones from my trips to the Pacific Northwest and Europe.