Do betamax tapes degrade in any significant way?

Would the original recording have been impacted by any technological limitations of early 80s home systems. Any guesses on camera type? Would they have used something like this:

http://www.digicamhistory.com/1970s.html

SONY HVC-1000 - 1979. The HVC-1000 is an example of an early Beta video camera. Originally, the HVC-1000 required an adapter to record to Beta recorders. Later, it could record directly to the Sony SL-2000 and SL-2500 of 1982.

Seems like more hand held version were a few years away still, so the operation behind ESB had some serious connections to get the equipment and replication.

Maybe this was the camera behind RotJ - the 1983 BetaMovie: http://www.totalrewind.org/cameras/C_BMC1.htm

Or would a more industrial camera, maybe from a local news station more likely been the device behind these recordings?