These days, most of us are carrying capable smartphones with high-quality cameras. It makes shooting video so easy as to take all the fun out of it. [AIRPOCKET] decided to bring that back, by converting an old spring-driven 8mm film camera to shoot digital video.
The camera in question is a magazine-fed Bell & Howell Model 172 from the 1950s. In its original spring-driven form, it could shoot for approximately 35 seconds at a (jerky) frame rate 16 fps.
In this build, though, the film is replaced with a digital imaging system designed to fit in the same space as the original magazine. A Raspberry Pi Zero 2 was pressed into service, along with a rechargeable battery and Pi camera module. The camera is timed to synchronise with the shutter mechanism via a photosensor.
Since it uses the original optics and shutter speed, the resulting video is actually very reminiscent of the Super 8 cameras of the past. It’s an impressive way to get a retro film effect straight into a digital output format. The alternative is to just shoot on film and scan it afterwards, of course! Video after the break.
Fun project, nicely done!
Next step: power the camera with a generator on the film spooling mechanism.
Lol I was going to say the same thing!
That sure looks like a Double 8 camera. With a 16mm cartridge that is used to record on one half then flipped to use the other half. There are perorations on both edges and it is split after processing in standard 16mm developer machine. This was by far the most economical way to make movies. And resolution was as good or better than a television until digital came along.
Even Bolex made the H8, a Double 8 built on their H16 frame with lenses and zooms and all the accessories for 8mm. They used film on reels, as did many of the consumer cameras. You got 16 minutes of film from a 100 foot reel! 100ft of 16mm is 6 minutes at the same speed (18fps). At sound speeds of 24fps it is 12min and 4:30min. (16mm is suitable for projection of Hollywood films in an auditorium.)
Anyway, really neat project. I think about this every time I see some old cameras I have. All hail the people who actually do it!
This is a good idea, so are there other “cartridge” super 8 cameras this could be adapted for? There are lots of nice analogue cameras sold for pennies that could be revived by a good digital adapter.
Super8 cartridges are/where a standard format used in hundreds if not thousands of different cameras.I see these cameras in flea marked’s all the time. Using the real cartridge is still possible but is just for hardcore users. A digital replacement module should be a viable product.
Already Hackaday-ed last year: https://hackaday.com/2021/09/30/super-8-camera-brought-back-to-life/
Thanks.
Isn’t this the camera or similar to the one they shot “Manos: The Hands Of Fate” on?
It was!
“Footage was shot with a 16 mm Bell & Howell camera that had to be wound by hand and thus could only take 32 seconds of footage at a time”
No, those Bell and Howell 16mm magazine cameras are the gun camera they made for the Army Air Corp in WWII with different exterior and a lens turret and a spring wind mechanism. They also made “newsreel” style cameras that used a longer film on reels that were used by Combat Photographers. The magazine type were much quicker to load and kept the exposed film secure.
The B&H (and other manufacturers) AN-N6 GSAP camera was a joint Army-Navy use unit, electrically driven rather than spring wound.
Lay them side by side. Yes, the civilian has a spring wind. https://www.ebay.com/itm/201048469889
It’s not a gun camera though, as you alluded to.
That sure looks like a Double 8 camera. With a 16mm cartridge that is used to record on one half then flipped to use the other half. There are perorations on both edges and it is split after processing in standard 16mm developer machine. This was by far the most economical way to make movies. And resolution was as good or better than a television until digital came along.
Even Bolex made the H8, a Double 8 built on their H16 frame with lenses and zooms and all the accessories for 8mm. They used film on reels, as did many of the consumer cameras. You got 16 minutes of film from a 100 foot reel! 100ft of 16mm is 6 minutes at the same speed (18fps). At sound speeds of 24fps it is 12min and 4:30min. (16mm is suitable for projection of Hollywood films in an auditorium.)
Anyway, really neat project. I think about this every time I see some old cameras I have. All hail the people who actually do it!
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