u/xjets20

The work on the modernized Super8 movie viewer continues! Up to about the 30th full revision. The dichroic lenses are looking good, bright and colorless and good magnification, the mechanisms are sturdy and super smooth operating, 21mm precision bearings in the main handle rotator and the finger grip. Trying to gauge interest whether or not to do a limited production with 3D printed parts. These are all FDM printed, a batch would be done in SLA method, smoother finish.

1. Stage 0. Communicate the concept of the cartridge and Super8 loop, vintage Fisher Price "hardware" can be sourced and used. Its a cool little media ecosystem. Even the old cartridges can be broken open filled with 12 foot sections of Super8 film and spliced into a loop and viewed. Ebay sourced.
2. Stage 1. This. Re-engineered player. 95% complete. Feels better, works smoother, more weight to it. The glass optics give a colorless clarity that is not in the vintage players. Setting up a prototype/dummy website to imagine the system and product configurator for colors.
3. Stage 2. Re-engineer the cartridges for producing 3D printed versions that can be filled more readily. Screw fasteners, clean setup. About 10% into this reverse engineering step. Will require a lot of proofing of the SLA prints and tolerances, this is a tight balance to get the film gate and "shutter" to play in both directions.
4. Stage 3. Build a Super 8 film recorder setup that will take digital files and record them onto film. About 20% into this project step.

Appreciate all feedback on this obsession of mine to make a 50 year old toy into something for the modern day! If anything is unclear, please let me know!

https://reddit.com/link/1vnchw7/video/5cubgb4hh5jh1/player

Starting up a project to make a film recorder, take a digital video and frame by frame record it onto Super8 film. The opposite of film scanning 😄, the opposite of the modern digital age! I like the idea of filming with the modern tools, getting things right and then commiting it to Super8 film. If anyone has any feedback, would love to hear it.

The current basis is the Nikon Super Zoom 8, nice mechanicals and lens. I have the first donor models in hand here in Japan. Junk models due to battery corrosion.

The working concept is to remove the light metering, remove the shutter, aperature blades, power zoom and tungsten filter, to keep everything in a fixed, stable state. They have been removed and the camera re-assembled and working. Nice tank-like mechanicals to work with.

The aperature blades will be replaced by hole with a fixed dimension. 0.1mm brass plate, blacked. Exposure will be controlled by turning on and off an OLED screen for the determined interval. The system will be built into a light-tight box. Once focus has been calibrated it will be locked.

The lens to film light path is always open. The single-frame cable release control port at the back will be connected to a solenoid control. The program will be advance the film, wait for vibrations to settle, illuminate the current digital frame on the OLED display and expose the film, turn off display, repeat.

At the point now of ordering the OLED display in order to determine the size of the box and optics and build the test exposure program.

If you have any suggestions, obvious things I might have missed to look at, please let me know.