Super 8 Camera Digital Conversion (using Raspberry Pi) 

The way the video's white balance changes so drastically when blooming from light changes is what really sells it to me.

Nice work. If Kodak would have manufactured a cartridge like the one you developed, I feel that many of us who still have our super 8 cameras would be in heaven. I'd pay $400 for a cartridge like this one. Thanks again for your effort in doing this.

The shakiness, low frame rate and some of the shadow effect is a result of the mechanical shutter in the camera. This is required on film cameras to ensure that each frame/cell of the film is exposed one at a time, instead of streaking the film in front of the image projected by the lens/prism assembly.

Well done. The crappy 8mm footage is beautiful and nostalgic it's so realistic and I love it. The only thing missing is the sound of the projector at the back.

This is great! I always wanted to re-purpose a 8mm camera, with out modification. Fantastic job.

This is really nice work. I would say that there is definitely a market for this among the "bespoke" crowd, especially if it had sound. It's very nice that you shared your work! I'm not even a film fanatic, but I'm old enough to remember watching movie playback from the developed film cartridges, and the film quality hits me right in the nostalgia. It's a nice change from the sterile quality of existing cameras, even with the lens aberrations. You get the feel of Super 8 film, and the convenience of SD cards. Hard to beat, if you ask me.

Would you ever been willing to make a tutorial on how to build this?

Phenomenal! I have been avoiding buying a 3D printer, but now I have no excuse. Great work! This is a profound contribution to the Super 8 community.

I can’t wait for the tutorial! Me and my friends are really into film cameras and I’m an engineering student with a ton of free time.

Surprised how much of the Super 8 look these captures actually have. Very well done.

Great technique! I am one of the people who use 8mm cameras in Japan. This video has become a hot topic in Japan as well. I definitely want to see a video of making this device from scratch. With love from Japan.

This is such a cool project! I love how the footage looks like. Thanks a lot for making this open source.

8mm movies, not "videos" :) Super 8mm lasted decades, "regular" 8mm went back to the 40s. In it's last throws, one word: Fotomat! I mean, you could get your roll back _in_ _the_ _same_ _week!_ Cheap carts too, unfortunately nothing ever captured the beauty of the Kodak low ASA reversal (Kodachrome). In the 90s and 2000's, a company in L.A. called "Super-8 Sound" thrived. They cut negative (not reversal) from 35mm film stocks and sold to professionals for commercials, music videos, creative works. I believe they also leased cameras with large mags (not carts) that worked with timecode and double-system sound. Being negative film as well as higher end cameras, the look was much denser with good color balance and saturation, no blow-outs. The grain and resolution were better than the reversal carts, but still obviously (pleasingly) low resolution. Brilliant RazPi invention. You're right that the emulation you've achieved is uncanny. Good lord. 18fps video would not look like that "out of the box". You mention prism, optics, shake, white balance. Is the shutter in the camera still spinning? Is the rate of capture in any way synced to the shutter? Just wild. I definitely want to make this cartridge. (I've got my share of regular and super 8mm cameras -- to think that digital film could actually capture so much of the characteristics, never would have expected it....) Nice work.

Fantastic project! Wish I had the skills to pull off something like this. Thank you for making it, and sharing your code and CAD file.

it brings back old video quality... it's really classic...you feel the different genre..nice project

Genious! You seem to be the first one who was successfull with that. I've watched 3-4 other vids and all of them had problems with focusing or powering. Your setup looks also quite simple. I watched the video in 1.25 x speed by accident and it gave the super-8 footage some more vintage style (like the videos you know from the 50s maybe).

Could you make a tutorial to build yours?

I think this is awesome. I look forward to trying this. I have an old super8 camera. This looks so much fun. I actually like the vintage look of the footage.

Hopefully the full step by step video releases soon! Guess I'll be subbing to stay updated!

So nice. I have to do it too. But I need a shopping list for all the parts. And a tutorial video would be great too. Good job!

Wow this looks SO cool! Looking forward to a tutorial!

Sehr interessant! Die Idee wurde in der Vergangenheit schon öfters versucht zu vermarkten, aber aus irgendeinem Grund gab es nie ein fertiges Produkt. Aber ich habe noch nie eine Lösung mit so guten Ergebnis gesehen!

The footage looks authentic to me. I like this quite a bit. 👍🏻

Hi! great solution. I developed the 'Digital Super8 Cartridge' and it is somewhat more complex, using synchronized frame capturing and global reset release. Your solution provides a cheaper solution and easier for people to self-build. I did all my software coding in C++ and I use an industry grade subminiature camera which is quite expensive but very programmable. Using OpenCV libraries to handle the 12 bit RAW images.

This is awesome. I would love to se a detailed video on the build.

That footage looks Amazing! 🤩 I love just how much it resembles film... I want one. But I don't have 3d printing, or the Raspberry Pi skills

This is so friggin awesome!!! This truly what I would call “digital film”. To me, the simple solution to making digital look like film boils down to one thing-a mechanic shutter. Why people don’t think about that blows my mind. Think about what film is. Individual images capture frame by frame. It’s not that difficult. The biggest thing that makes film look like film is the physical and mechanical way it’s recorded. I wonder though, Is the frame rate of this footage perhaps a bit slower that the real thing? I can’t tell.

WOW!!! That one is new enough to not use a clockwork to drive the film. Cool. I remember making stop-motion films on older 8mm cameras when I was in High School.

I love this to bits. I have a few 8mm cameras, and I would love to do that digital conversion as well for them

This is great! I want to try this with the guts of a GoPro, we'll see how it goes x3

This man has been trusted by the power of the Retro Gods!

Fantastic! I world love to be able to buty the ready cartridge like that.

Great one, lad. I knew you did very well. That is something great making these kinds of videos, including long ones with a 128 to 256 GB storage card. Hope you might try a new plug in comversion making long videos from this camera.

Very nice project! I am very intersted in building this myself, but Im still a bit lost on what parts are needed. When will you be able to post a tutorial or at least a full part list?

Damn I'd love to make one of those for a vintage super 8 camera that I have (it doesn't even use batteries, so imagine how old it is) and to use my grandpa's camera again. I'll definitely try to do it, thanks for everything!!!

Has anyone been able to re-create this with success? Also, thank you befinitiv. This is amazing. Would love to see a tutorial! :)

This is so awesome. Thank you!!

Coole Sache...aber auch cool, dass du in Mölln gefilmt hast. LG

Wow! Someone or you should produce these, there'd be a market for sure. Footage looks quite close to Mini DV/VHS, I think

This is awesome man! I've been watching these videos with people doing similar. You, however, walk through creating the cartridge. Great work!

This is sooo cool!! I absolutely love the vintage look, can you please share the DIY parts list? And how to build one? Would love to try it out and integrate it into my videos!

Great work. I want One!!!!

Thanks for this! I'm curious how one of the more pro Canon Super 8 would fare having better lenses. Maybe it would stoll capture the beauty of 8mm but more of a higher end film look? I have a new in box 8mm here somewhere... tearing up the house!

You are sitting on a hella kickstarter success 🤯

image stabilization and your set. onboard recording or usb connection. very nice concept.

hi, there's a list of the component that we need to create it and the circuit? (battery, motion sensor, usb port... ?)

This is awesome! Any chance of a build video?

Very nice! 👌🏼 To bring this project to the next level you could build in a switch to manually set white balance to avoid the wb shift. To avoid the jello/rolling shutter you could use a pi cam with a global shutter. Then it would be perfect 😊

For what it's worth, I have many rolls of Super 8 film that I shot in the 1990s with a GOOD camera, and I would not even consider exchanging them for 1990s video, which looks terrible today. However, this is a cool project!

Thank you for sharing Befinitiv, really cool project. I went out and found the same camera on ebay to do the same. Do you think you will end up doing a more in depth video on how to do it? Still waiting for all my parts to arrive.

Would you mind making a tutorial on how to make this? I would love to turn my videocameras into useful equipment again. Please!

Weird that the shutter in the camera isn't making any partial frames in the video. I assume the next revision of the digital cartridge will have a cover? A little OLED display visible through the door window would be nice. Dunno what to show on it other than the storage space remaining. Other cameras that need digital cartridges are the 110 and 126 and the Kodak Disc. For sensor size the Disc should be the easiest. It would need a custom PCB to mount the sensor, memory, other electronics and have space for a couple of coin cells to power it. The 110 and 126 cartridges would have more room for electronics and power but their larger frame size would be an issue for an affordable digital sensor. Minolta and Pentax made some quite nice 110 SLR cameras and Kodak made a 126 SLR which was compatible with their Retina 35mm lenses, though not all functions of the Retina lenses would work on the 126 SLR. Other 126 SLRs were the Contaflex 126 and the Rolleiflex SL26. There might be other 110 and 126 SLR cameras. Aside from SLR types, there were various other very nice 110 and 126 cameras with automatic film advance/rewind, range finders, electronic flash and more.

Would love info on how to do the electronics for this.

Congrats on this. Wonderful project. I agree that it looks very similar to some Super 8 with auto aperture control. Something I wonder with the power of the latest Pi is whether higher quality camera sensors may become available - and in different sizes. This would greatly elevate the kind of DIY camera projects a person could do. For example, you don't say exactly how big the sensor is, but it looks like it would cover the whole super 8 frame. How wonderful if there was a sensor for the Pi that could cover Super16 for cameras like the Bolex (although the modifications may be considerably more complex given that they didn't operate on cartridges - meaning there's like little space for the sensor behind the film gate). And when I say higher quality sensors... the readout speed on this sensor is comparitively slow for such a small sensor compared to consumer cameras. So there's a lot of wobble (rolling-shutter) which you wouldn't see on Super 8 film.

im new to using raspberry pi, I've built a couple retro gaming systems with it, but that's as far as my knowledge goes. With that being said, how to I set up my raspberry pi to record like yours is? I found your source codes but I'm not sure what to do with them.

Can you possibly show me how you make the sensor to trigger the Raspberry Pi please? I really want to make one as well and I'm ordering all the parts.

Ur the best! As always

Can you maybe make a small list of all the parts, because i dont understand al the parts tou tell in the video.

LOVE this! Hey, I know this is an older project, but I would love to use my Grandpa's old camera again. Do you sell these Digital Super 8 Cartridges that I can put my own Raspberry Pi and Camera into? Thanks.

Because of the sensor size, is the crop factor from the viewfinder and the recording the same?

Wow that’s a cool project I wonder if an old film cartridge could be reused to house the project as I don’t have a 3d printer. There’s a good selection of cameras just laying around you should market this I think you will be surprised at how many would sell

Hey, awesome project! What are you using to view the stream on the laptop?

Would you be willing to make a step by step tutorial on how you made this? Also thank you for the open source code !

Nice idea 👍

Is there any chance you can update the list on where to purchase some of the items?

I found myself the same camera, 'cause I love how it looks, but now... I only know how to copy people smarter than me, so please, could you shoot a short tutorial of the creation process? Thanks in advance, you're awesome!

Really nice! Can we do this conversion to any old camera? Like the ones 16mm film?

I love your project, thanks a lot for sharing it. I’m looking forward to rebuild it. Are you going to do a detailed video about how to build the device as you did with the 35 mm cartridge?

Great project! Could we have some more information about the build? In particular, how did you modify the Pi camera to expose the sensor? And how did you disable the movie camera’s mechanical shutter? Thanks!

Do you have any videos showing the build step by step? Or the exact parts list? I really want to do this but have literally no experience messing around with soldering or electronics. It seems like this would be a good first project but having the video would be really nice same goes for your other film camera video. Thx and Great Job! You earned another sub!

Great thing!, I recently got such a camera and I was wondering if there are any devices that can replace film, but unfortunately there are not, that's how I came across your video, but I don't know how to do it myself, how to connect the resistor, etc. the question is whether you want to make another video, how exactly do you connect it, etc

What a cool thing! I've been collecting cameras for years, and would love to try this. I'm a little hazy on the parts, though -- does anyone who has attempted this have a more detailed parts list? I don't want to get the wrong stuff.

It looks very decent , indeed.

Poot white balance due to the bult in colour filter. Super 8 films are tungsten type. And for daylight you have a built in filter to confirt the colour temperature. There must be somewhere a a possibility to switch out this colour filter

You can use that without a pc outdoor?

Awesome project. Change the thumbnail with consisting both the camera with pi and small part of test footage capture to gain more views.

Hi, did you remove the shutter from the camera? Or how else do you ensure that the videocam exposes exactly when the shutter of the Super8 camera is open? So how do you sync the cmos sensor cam with the Super8 cam?

As far as I see the sensor you are using is having a size of 3.7x2.7mm, while the original Super8 film has 5.8x4mm. That might also magnify some artifact. Ideal would be a more closer match, but we also need to fit in the place. Some details would be nice, e.g. rolling detection. Thanks anyway!

Where can we buy a ready to use one?

Before you actually mentioned it, I thought "That footage REALLY looks like 8mm film!" What an awesome way to capture "60s-era" fun video of family and friends without having to fake the effect in post-production!! I'm wondering if you had to tweak the distance and angle of the Pi sensor to perfectly match the location of the film plane? (Can't tell if that camera was built as fixed-focus.)

Will this also work with a dismantled USB web camera? Strip away the Lens and Case and use only the camera Sensor from the Webcam in the place of the 8mm frame? I ask because i have 4-5 HD webcams that are Not used anymore and already have a Pi left for experiments. So i dont need new parts for this.

Hey! Cool project! I'm trying to build one. Which optical sensor did you use to detect the motion of the camera motor? Thanks!!! Robert

Any chance you would sell yours or make another one I could buy?

Hi! Can I ask what kind of voltage converter did you use between the Raspberry and the 18650 battery?

New super 8 stock isn’t hard to come across, it’s expensive yeah but it’s very doable and with sharp results using a nice camera. I’ve been shooting super 8 now about about 6 years, I’m only 22.

Wow, now that's a game changer. Would this work for Super 16 cameras as well?

Did you have trouble getting the camera sensor to focus? Does AutoFocus need to be disabled? I am using LibraCamera, any help is appreciated.

Rather interesting!

This is really incredible and fun! I was surprised at the authentic super 8 colour. Did you grade the footage in any way? Or is that all inherent in the glass of the lens? Do you think this would be possible with a Bolex 16mm film camera?

Auto exposure is by the camera, right?

That's unbelievable.!

I was going to complain that your initial shots were through the window but looking at the later pictures it sure looks a lot like super 8... Have you color graded these to make them look more like super 8? Or is this straight off of the SD card? I have a camera ready to go and a couple more I'd like to try something similar with. One is a cartridge 8 camera with a three lens turret ... I was able to obtain an 8 mm magazine and I'm planning on putting a system like this inside of it.

this is brilliant, I'm defiantly gonna try and make my own. I have a few questions though, 1, once you've recorded a video how do you retrieve it from the SD card? 2, what program are you using on your laptop to view the live video feed? thanks for making this project, it's really inspiring and i can't wait to give it a go.

Hi, can you do a tutorial on how to do it? You have gained a new follower Greetings from Spain

Very nice work! Did you remove the lens from the digital camera? And not sure if I'm misunderstanding the onshape interface, but the linked CAD model doesn't appear to be a Super 8 cart.

Hi, can you give me some info for the photoresistor? I'm looking at various types: GL5506, GL5516, GL5528, GL5537, GL5539, GL5549 all have different light resistance values, does it matter which I choose?

Will you make a tutorial video?

Interesting but no, the resolution of Super 8 was far higher than VHS or Beta Max, you can get better than HD video out of a Super 8 scan, somewhere closer to 1440p when scanned at 4k. What killed Super 8 is that you couldn't see what you shot instantly. Then there was the fact that you had to pay for development. Then you could only record on it once. In fact, VHS is not film, but magnetic tape, which is still used today for recording data backups for server grade computers. The problems with Super 8 are none of the things you mentioned. The problem with Super 8 especially today is the high cost for development. About 2:30 (two and a half minutes) costs you about $100 USD to get developed and scanned at 2.5k. There were 24 and even 12 and 48fps options on some Super 8 cameras not just 18fps. It's just that 18fps is the default recording speed for 8mm dating back as far as when 8mm cameras were originally released. Although there are plenty of Super 8 cameras that can record at 24fps and even 12fps (as I said for "time lapse" effects) or 48fps (for motion). When you shoot at 12fps you would play the footage back at 24fps and when you shot at 48fps you would slow the frame rate back down to 24fps so that you could record motion without the stuttering. These cameras were quite a lot more advanced than you give them credit for, further to the point, many people still use them today, especially if you want to get the true "look" of cinema film. Super 8 gives you the closest look to authentic cinema film which is why people use it today even if 16mm will give you much more resolution. You've also seen plenty of people use these types of cameras, even today, because they work in exactly the same way as a 35mm or even 65 or 70mm camera that Wally Pfister used to record many of the scenes of The Dark Knight in 65mm film. These cameras work in exactly the same way as a 65mm camera actually, they just come with an "idiot proof" cartridge that can be loaded by anyone, in direct sunlight, without ruining the film inside it, as the film is in a light sealed cartridge. Super 8 was meant to be the answer to 35mm film for photography, as a cheap and affordable home user format, and it was, right up until the 1970s when VHS became a thing. But, Super 8 is a non-linear format, as it records 8mm photos through the gate... It's called a gate not a window.... and because its a picture based format and not a magnetic based format you can keep recording in better quality every time technology improves. Then there is the advent of AI upscaling meaning the actual quality of Super 8 film is almost limitless. This would be a good video, if anything you said was correct. Also you've basically created a Hi8 camera, it's been done before... The look comes from both the shutter, which is still moving in front of the lens... and the glass... which produces its own optics and colours.

What I meant was: I would love to be able to buy the ready cartridge like that. Are you considering the preparing a commercial version of it? Cheers!

Can anyone explain what the point of all this is when it gives video quality worse than a smartphone?