Cartridge CAD models, measurements, or blueprints, for super-8 and single-8

[Jenny List]

So you intend to have a "digital cartridge" for Super8/Single8 camera?

I really don't want to put you off, but I remembered hearing a similar concept a few years back (can't find the reference at the moment). Unfortunately it didn't pass the prototype stage AFAIK. There must be a reason for that I think.

I think I am about to make your day.

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/ras...er-8mm-camera/

I've been playing around with my ESP32 ideas for a while, and this guy meanwhile comes out with his Raspberry Pi version.

[Brian Fretwell]

I also remember a sensor and digital storage for SLR cameras being proposed so that you didn't have to buy a new camera and that it could be replaced as new and better sensor chips came out. That never made it either - too much interest in selling new cameras all the time I should imagine.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

So you intend to have a "digital cartridge" for Super8/Single8 camera?

I really don't want to put you off, but I remembered hearing a similar concept a few years back (can't find the reference at the moment). Unfortunately it didn't pass the prototype stage AFAIK. There must be a reason for that I think.

[Jenny List]

Hi all, and thanks to mods for approving my account.

I'm a hardware hacker and electronic engineer with an interest in 8mm cameras, I'm not a filmmaker, instead I've been experimenting for quite a while with designing digital cartridges. You may have seen a widely-publicised Super-8 cartridge containing a Raspberry Pi Zero, I've been pursuing a different approach for a while using an ESP-32 microcontroller.

I have more than one 8mm camera, as I'm guessing so do many of you

I'm looking for something that I don't have which I hope some of you might be able to either point me to or help me get. I'm after precision measurements of both Super 8 and Single 8 cartridges, such that I can make a CAD model and 3D-print cartridge shells more accurately than I can by measuring the cameras.

In particular I'm interested in a single-8 cartridge model, as I've never even seen one of these in the flesh and I'd quite like to see my Fuji working again.

Single-8 presents a particular problem for a digital cartridge, because of the film gate. I don't like to modify a camera unless it is broken (for example my Kodak XL33 has its shutter removed because its ancient nylon gears had crumbled to bits and it doesn't work as a camera any more), so I don't want to remove the film gate, but I think I can put a camera sensor on a flexible PCB through the ~2.5mm gap between film gate and camera body so it sits where the film would. Thus such a cartridge could be lifted out with care and replaced with a single-8 film cartridge if needed.

I don't know the internal geometry of a single-8 cartridge, but it's worth pointing out that from a CAD model it might be possible to develop a 3D-printable cartridge for filling with super 8 film.

I appreciate digital cartridges might be anathema to film enthusiasts, however I think anything that makes otherwise redundant cameras useful has to be worth a look. Thus can anyone help with those measurements? Are there any blueprints available online? I've not found any but I could have missed them. If not does anyone have both a Vernier caliper and a super- or single-8 cartridge to hand? I suggest that making these measurements and CAD models open source might benefit us all.