8
Threading the film
Part
Drag to turn it around · click anywhere to put it back
01An overview

A 3D print
with hardware

You 3D print the cartridge and you buy the hardware.

The ten parts
Click one to take a closer look
    Super 8
    Digital
    A digital Super 8 cartridge for your analog camera
    Scroll down
    Footage

    Shot through a lens
    from 1965

    These come straight off the card with no grading at all. The cartridge records at 1296 × 972 and 17 frames per second, which is the rate this particular camera's motor actually turns at.

    Print it at homeRaspberry Pi Zero 2 W1296 × 972 at 17 fps50 Mbps H.264No app to installFits any Super 8 bodyFree and open source Print it at homeRaspberry Pi Zero 2 W1296 × 972 at 17 fps50 Mbps H.264No app to installFits any Super 8 bodyFree and open source
    How it works

    It's plug
    and play

    It works by watching a beam of light get chopped up when the Super 8 motor turns. So there's no need to make modifications to your Super 8 camera.

    Edges counted0
    Wiring

    A nerdy preview
    of how it works

    Are you that person that likes watching a diagram instead? Here you go. The diagram below is live, so you can try the whole thing without soldering anything.

    Try it
    Switch the power on to begin.
    Live readout
    5 V railOFF
    3.3 V railOFF
    LEDOFF
    GPIO 4LOW
    CameraIDLE
    Follow one net
    5 V 3.3 V Ground Signal Light
    3V3

    Power for the sensor

    This one pin feeds both halves of the trigger circuit, running the LED through a 330 Ω resistor and the LDR through a 10 kΩ divider.

    5V, GND

    Power for the Pi

    The Lipo Rider Plus does two jobs at once here: it charges the cell over USB-C, and it boosts that 3.7 V up to the clean 5 V the Pi needs to run.

    GPIO4

    The trigger itself

    For the Pi to read this reliably the voltage has to climb past 1.8 V when the light gets through and fall below 0.8 V when it doesn't.

    What you need

    Five to print,
    five to buy

    Everything printable fits on a single plate. It just needs a couple of supports. The five things to buy are listed below. This list excludes things like cables, resistors, etc.

    Build it yourself

    Step-by-step
    setup wizard

    It all comes down to just 7 easy steps to build the cartridge. The only long one is the install, and even that is mostly just waiting for the Pi to finish pulling down packages.

    01 / 07
    Download
    Make one
    yourself

    You get the model, the print profile, the full wiring schematic and all of the code that runs on the Pi. It is free and open source.

    Get it on MakerWorld → Download the scripts ↓