Yes, that's what I was thinking. After all, most proffessional applications include a tape-based workflow, whether its just miniDV, DV, Beta, or DigiBeta. I shoot video semi-proffessionally and have used nothing but miniDV tapes on cameras such as the Sony Z1s and PD170s and they run years without problems. You will need to run a cleaning cassette through once in a while, though. My opinion stands that tape is still best for consumer applications although feel free to try out P2, SxS, CF, etc with the more expensive, reliable prosumer products.

A while back we decided on mini DV because it had the best price to performance ratio at the price point we were looking at (rock bottom). It also fit well with our workflow - shoot tapes of key moments in the kids lives and put the tape in a box at the back of the closet for the foreseeable future.

One is a Panasonic and the other is a Canon. If I mishandle them, many of my other things would break also, which is not the case.

Bad units do contribute to the MTBF numbers. So I can only call them "average". Your good unit are also "average" unit in the same vein.

There are some consumer items with relatively short MTBF but hidden from view. For instance the CCFL backlight in LCDs used in computers has a MTBF about 2-3,000 hours. So it is important to keep them off when not in use.

Cars are one of the longer working complex consumer products. At 200,000K miles and average of 45 MPH, that car only worked 4500 hours.

I venture to guess tape based cameras have MTBF of less than 1000 hours.

You make a good point, but of course have a look at some miniDV playback decks and you'll see they last for many thousands of hours. I appreciate your perspective on this topic although my opinion stands.

ROFL :D