Sony has metal particle tape for dvcam. The 5800 sony deck will play back dvcpro, dvcam and minidv. The tape speed difference is marginal in dvcpro. Not a significant factor. Tape speed is not the only thing that causes dropouts. Many news broadcasters use dvcam. I use all the panasonic "broadcast" dvcpro decks and there is no improvement in speed from a sony 5800. Try tape positioning/shuttling with the dsr5000 before you say panasonic decks are faster. DVCpro image quality is marginally better than dvcam. Very slight. Only the most experienced, master eye will see it (like mine). To most clients and pros there is no difference in image quality enough to base decisions on. What some broadcasters have used as the criteria for choosing dvcpro is the 1/100th of a fraction difference in a couple of the format specs which happens to make it fall within FCC guidelines for the illusive "broadcast quality". Yes, Dvcam is smaller and lighter than dvcpro cams, and thank god. It makes no sense for a camera to weigh as much as the DVC pro cams in this day and age. They are too heavy. The pro50 wieghs as much as a single family house.

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