Is Campy 8spd compatible with Shimano indexing? Alternatively, can I put a Shimano cluster on a Campy freehub body?

Crap. That's what I thought. Now I either need to trade these Campy hubs for a set of Dura Ace or swap d/rs to Campy

Cog to cog spacing on Campy 8 speed is 5mm like Shimano 7 speed.

Everything you'd want to know.

Wheels Of Boulder list re-spacer kits to convert shimano hubs and casettes to work with Campy shifter/der. You might give them a call to see if the opposite is possible;

https://wheelsmfg.com/content/section/15/40/

Also, just give it a try, I think that they are pretty close as-is and may work acceptably.

Jtek Shiftmate.

I have a Campi 8spd cassette that I am running with DA Intigrated 8 DT shifters and RD. it seems to work OK to me. if you have an extra cassette it is worth trying atleast

Carbon fiber rims are just soooooo tempting.

Or like Sachs or Sun Tour Ultra or the majority of 7 speed freewheels. If you are a Campy fan, and also of the opinion that all you need is 7 gears (even if you do mountain riding), but you want an indexed (non friction) system, merge Campy's early 8 speed ergo levers (or even later 8 speed ergos with the group name on the lever) with a Campy 7 speed drive train and employ the flexibilty of Sachs or SunRace or Shimano 7 speed freewheels which might provide anything from a 12-19 rear cassette to a 13-32. You will have one gear on the levers that doesn't do anything, but you will have a solid 7 speed system with the flexibilty to have the cog range you need in the back rather than be limited by Campy's 8-speed offerings (or 9-speed for that matter).

From this;
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/cribsheet-spacing.html

It would appear that you could likely start with a campy 8-speed casette, disassemble the casette and carefully grind the spacers from 1.9mm down to 1.7 mm each to achieve the same 4.8mm cog+spacer deminsion, total width 35.4mm so as to work with shimano shifter+derailler.

Or, you might try using your shimano shifter+derailler on the campy spaced casette by attaching the derailler cable with SB's alternate B cable attachment; https://www.sheldonbrown.com/dura-ace.html This will in effect increase the movement ratio of the rear derailler so that it travels slighlty more per given amount of cable pull, help the dereailler cover the wider spacing of the campy casette. If this results in too much derailler travel, try attaching the cable somewhere inbetween the full B routing and the original routing for an intermediate travel setting.

I picked up a set of Campy hubs (8spd) laced to glossy black Ambrossio Elite rims at the flea market last weekend for a steal so I guess it would behoove me to give them a shot. I'm not sure I'm up to grinding spacers but the other options look quite feasible. I'll give it a whirl and report back. Thanks for the info guys!