With the convenience of digital cameras and editing software, shooting video today is so easy. But fifty years ago it wasn’t electronics that stored the picture but film, and for many that meant Super 8. Editing Super 8 involved a razor blade and glue, and an editing station, like a small projector and screen, was an essential accessory. Today these are a relatively useless curio, so [Endpoint101] picked one up for not a lot and converted it into an HDMI monitor.
Inside these devices there’s a film transport mechanism and a projection path usually folded with a couple of mirrors. In this case the glass screen and much of the internals have been removed, and an appropriate LCD screen fitted. It’s USB powered, and incorporates a plug-in USB power supply mounted in a UK trailing socket for which there’s plenty of space.
There’s always some discussion whenever a vintage device like this is torn apart as to whether that’s appropriate. These film editors really are ten a penny though, so even those of us who are 8 mm enthusiasts can see beyond this one. The result is a pleasingly retro monitor, which if we’re honest we could find space for ourselves. The full video is below the break. Meanwhile it’s not the first conversion we’ve seen, here’s another Hanimex packing a Raspberry Pi.
So an LCD screen was installed into an old housing?
Yeah, this is definitely not a hack and could have been done with a 555 instead.
Hayup. Would be neat if it also integrated a scanner or a camera or something, but here we are.
no no no no no you don’t understand at all
an lcd screen was installed into a retro housing
into a retro vintage housing. Must use all the buzzwords.
I wonder if someone can install a retro vintage LCD panel in this comment thread? 🤔
Looks nice, but I would be MUCH more impressed if the objective lens had been replaced with/fit with an HD camera, as well, so it could be used to scan or edit film….
I could see a ‘base’ for it to stand on, made in a similar style containing the electronics connected to it being pretty neat. Sometimes simple but arty projects are good projects.
These comments. Lol
I’ve got the vistavision kem that was used on Star Wars and most other ILM jobs collecting dust in my basement…. Maybe I will copy this guys idea :). Or better yet, find some parts from an old telecine so it can be used to watch actual film.. Oh.. wait .. lol.
Something wrong with that LCD, maybe not matched correctly to the controller. Gives terrible bluish image.
Would be even better to put a tiny screen where the film goes and use the actual projection path to get the full-sized image. Probably wouldn’t get quite as high a resolution, though.
Orrrr… You could do what he did, but use the projector as an addressable backlight for the large screen, like DIY Perks did a while back to get higher contrast.