Over the weekend I tore down an old RCA Super8 camcorder. It came with a power supply but it had already been damaged in the past. The viewfinder showed text over static and the tape mechanism just made a horrible squealing sound.
I was interested in perhaps using the imager somehow but it seems to be damaged and not worth chasing down. The autofocus and motorized zoom work great though, so I’m hoping to use those paired with a Raspberry Pi camera. Even if I don’t ever use the motorized features, they’re manually adjustable so that will make for a nice setup.
The other electronic parts of the camera are a bit too specific to be useful. I’m hoping to reuse some of the mechanics of the tape transport in my 1/4” audio tape experiments. 8mm is larger than 1/4” (6.35mm) so I think some of the various guides and rubber pinch rollers will come in handy.
Before I send all the extra parts to the electronics recycler, I need to plug it all back together and document the connector pin outs.