This will never work because it will be next to impossible to sync the electronic shutter of the video sensor to the mechanical shutter of the Super 8 camera. It would require variable clocking video shutter sensor tech that doesn't exist yet and sophisticated sensor technology for reading the mechanical shutter and triggering the video shutter with nanosecond latency. Even if this tech existed - how could you implement the mechanical shutter-reading sensor (a) in or on the Super 8 cartridge itself, and (b) not knowing at which place to read the mechanical shutter since the cartridge would have to work in any Super 8 camera?

Plus, the guy who proposes this is a designer and not an engineer. He seems to underestimate the complexity of the technical design.

Other solution: rip out the mechanical shutter from the Super 8 camera to accommodate the digital cartridge. But then the camera would have been destroyed for its original purpose, exposing film. And, even worse, 90% of all Super 8 cameras had electronically controlled auto exposure aperture - which likely would stop to work with the shutter ripped out. In some cameras - such as the top range Nizos -, electronic metering and aperture control is so deeply integrated into camera electronics that the camera stops working altogether if its disengaged.

No offense to the designer, but this project is just a nice portfolio piece/idea. If this would ever grow into a Kickstarter project, it would be even worse than Digital Bolex.

(Here's an article on the news item & this issue, in German: http://www.filmkorn.org/kommt-die-digitale-super-8-kassette/)

It's a cool idea, but if you're going to shoot digitally, why the hell would you use an old super 8 camera when there are so many superior options/optics in a small package.

This would get an A+ in a college design class, but in the real world...

@cantsin - The article doesn't say that it adjusts dynamically. It says that it does so automatically; it's an important distinction. Two easy ways to do that would be to either use an infrared sensor located just adjacent to the normal sensor to detect shutter movement (or a non-infrared sensor to just detect incoming light). Based on the intervals of light being seen and time between light being seen, you could set the video sensor to an appropriate frame rate. Otherwise, you could potentially also use timings from the film advance mechanism to detect frame rate. I'd be more inclined to try using a sensor than a mechanical timer, though, for product longevity.

first , people making distinctions between designers and engineers obviously know nothing about how real research is done. Go to any national lab in the country and you'll find engineers w/o degrees. Many, as a matter of fact , and I know this to be a fact because I did it. To be a degreed engineer means nothing as to his capacity to realize his project.

and second, as to the truthfulness of his statements that a special sensor was created to sync with the cameras mechanical shutter, and he has a working prototype, you have to take that as faith for the moment, because the video proving his concept is not posted.

...here's what he says-interpret for yourselves !

We have developed the first working proof of concept which we demonstrate in the video above. Now we are in the early phase of mechanical and electrical design. Preliminary solutions for the shutter interface are being fabricated presently for testing. Primary components are being sourced and priced.

Wouldn't there be too much noise and vibration from the Super8 camera motor, to get any stable picture? If he does it, I just need to convert my Edison analog audio recorder to record digital sound!

Sorry, forgot the following: the oldest comment on the project page is from May 2012. So it looks as if this page/project has been up for 1 1/2 years, still without the promised demo video. Likely, the project is already dead at this point.

cantsin - Ah, I hadn't noticed that they mentioned specifically the sensor in use. Sorry, you're right. It would be very difficult to sync a CMOS sensor with a clock to the camera's mechanical shutter.

@DigitalSuper8 - so you removed the film gate and also the mechanical shutter?

@DigitalSuper8 Cool idea! Is the low resolution due to USB transfer speed limitations?

I'm having trouble finding the dimensions of a super-8 cartridge online and I'm not near home to measure one, but I'm curious if there would be space in one for a raspberry pi. It seems like it might be possible to fit a raspberry pi 3 with pi camera (with lens removed) and a small usb battery into a super 8 cartridge and it should be possible, I'd think, to wire a photo sensor into one of the gpio pins... and the pi 3 camera can support up to 42 fps at 1296×972 resolution.

Without cutting a hole, you'd get no screen, but if your goal is to have something similar to the experience of shooting on film, maybe that isn't the worst thing...

Mechanical shutter stays in camera of course. The whole idea is to have digital super 8, where each image capture is triggered by optically sensing the film claw and then the CMOS sensor is exposed by the camera shutter being open. So no rolling shutter cause that wouldn't work. You shoot raw images which then later you can develop with our software. This is exactly how super8 filming works: you capture separate images.

Using infrared sensor to detect the film claw. Fps and resolution limited due to readout speed of the Aptina MT sensor.