Lego Super-8 Video Projector

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Posted by samzenpus on Sunday May 22, 2011 @08:13AM from the toy-camera dept.

dosh8er writes "This is pretty cool. Other than the reels, lamp, and lens, Friedemann Wachsmuth built this fascinating (and useful) Super-8 video projector from what appears to be common Lego Technic parts."

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Video camera? It's a movie projector. by NixieBunny · 2011-05-22 08:17 · Score: 5, Informative

There is a difference between movies and videos, and between projectors and cameras. Subtle, but it's there.

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1. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by master5o1 · 2011-05-22 08:54 · Score: 1
  
  Is there a difference between real life and between photos and magazines?
  
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2. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by newcastlejon · 2011-05-22 09:29 · Score: 1
  
  Is there a difference between real life and between photos and magazines?
  Not since the advent of digital cameras; there's no projecting through negatives any more.
  
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3. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by scottrocket · 2011-05-22 09:30 · Score: 1
  
  I hold in my lap, as I type this a wind-up, Kodak Brownie Movie Camera Model 2, 8mm. It advertises that it make "marvelous full-color movies...outdoors, indoors". Given the times (late fifties), that is simply sensationalistic advertising (much like today?). I would call it a motion film camera, and the device in this story a motion film projector, or something along those lines.
4. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by sunderland56 · 2011-05-22 09:46 · Score: 1
  
  Especially since a camera must be light-tight; a projector, not so much. Legos fit snugly, but aren't light tight.
5. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by seifried · 2011-05-22 09:57 · Score: 1
  
  Just do a double layer with the joints of the two layers offset, you'd be down to pinpoints of light, which a third layer could solve. Or use tinfoil.
6. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by freedumb2000 · 2011-05-22 10:26 · Score: 2
  
  Nonono, tin foil is for hats!
7. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by aplusjimages · 2011-05-22 11:09 · Score: 1
  
  I for one am interested in this new Super 8 video technology. It's apparently film and video at the same time, like those CD records.
  
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8. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by MstrFool · 2011-05-22 11:36 · Score: 2
  
  Certainly. All that is needed to understand this is an understanding of the word 'Movie' and where it comes from. A Movie is not a big budget production that you pay to see, it is a series of still images projected in rapid succession to give the appearance of motion. Only quite recently has the terminology started to shift from 'Home Movies' to 'Home Video'. So yes, if you converted the video to super 8, it would in fact qualify as a movie. Though don't be surprised when kids these days aren't aware of the real meaning of the word and are confused by it. And get off my lawn...
  
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9. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by antdude · 2011-05-22 13:02 · Score: 1
  
  I bet the submitter/author is a youngling. Back in my days, we used projectors a lot. Now, get off my lawn kids! ;)
  
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  Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
10. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by Bing+Tsher+E · 2011-05-22 13:24 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  A Kodak Brownie is a regular 8mm camera. Not Super 8. Super 8 uses a film cassette, whereas regular 8mm used 16mm film with a sprocket on both sides. You turned the reel over to shoot the second side, then at the processor they split the film in half. For inexplicable reasons, Super 8 and Regular 8 film had different sprocket hole sizes, so they are incompatible formats.
  Because Regular 8 film was regular 16mm stock and rolled on an open generic film reel, you can probably still get it. Super 8? Probably not.
11. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by scottrocket · 2011-05-22 16:00 · Score: 1
  
  Right about the Super 8 (we also had a Super 8 - with a zoom button!). In fact, to avoid being pedantic I'm going to take back the last sentence of my previous post; if someone last week had asked me what this camera produced, I would've said "Home...movies". But I understood the AC's pov: I tend to think of movies as something commercial, not me running around the yard with a Frito Bandito mustache on my face.
12. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by hedwards · 2011-05-22 16:13 · Score: 1
  
  That's not true. For quite a while you could get digital images converted to ones that could be put in a slide projector. Or onto regular 35mm film for creating normal prints from digital.
  I think that has fallen by the wayside as other forms of printing have been advancing.
13. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by hedwards · 2011-05-22 16:14 · Score: 1
  
  Sure why not, but unfortunately, it would still be Dharma and Greg.
14. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by hedwards · 2011-05-22 16:16 · Score: 1
  
  I fondly recall the few times that a bunch of us got together and rented a movie projector and a few reals to watch. It was kind of a pain, but there's something about watching movies in a way that's roughly analogous to how they're viewed in a theater.
15. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by antdude · 2011-05-22 16:56 · Score: 1
  
  Funny, I complained about my local AMC movie theater not getting digital screen. They finally started getting and showing them last year or two. Now, my friends and I can finally stop going to far away theaters for better pictures.
  
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16. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by TapeCutter · 2011-05-22 21:02 · Score: 1
  
  I've got about 3hrs worth of 3min super 8 reels from the early 80's when my kids were toddlers, the projector still works. The grandkids are toddlers now but in a few years I think they will enjoy watching thier parent's childhood on grandpa's antique "video player".
  
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17. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by antdude · 2011-05-23 01:31 · Score: 1
  
  You better teach them on how to use the projectors. Make a howto guide. [grin]
  
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18. Re:Video camera? It's a movie projector. by Tetsujin · 2011-05-23 02:25 · Score: 1
  
  So if you converted an episode of Dharma and Greg to Super 8, it would become a movie if you played it on this device?
  Maybe not, but it'd no longer be "video".
  
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Synergy by NixieBunny · 2011-05-22 08:20 · Score: 1

Legos are 8mm tall.

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The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
WHY IS SLASHDOT EVEN COVERING IT? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-22 08:44 · Score: 1

It isn't Arduino powered.
Call me by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-22 08:48 · Score: 1

When they get some lego swedish erotica.
1. Re:Call me by jtownatpunk.net · 2011-05-22 09:21 · Score: 1
  
  Now I can check out dad's porn stash.
  When I was a kid, they still advertised 8mm films in the back of the seedier porn mags, usually with a cheap or free projector since nobody had them any more.
2. Re:Call me by srodden · 2011-05-22 09:32 · Score: 1
  
  Well it's just waiting for someone with a super 8 camera...
  http://standardmadness.com/featured/rule-34-applied-to-lego
  
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3. Re:Call me by funkatron · 2011-05-22 09:35 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Now I can check out dad's porn stash.
  I can't help thinking that this is one of those things it's better not to investigate. Do you really wan to know what your dad likes wanking to?
  Off topic: apparently firefox doesn't think that "wank" is an English word, does this warrant a bug report?
  
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4. Re:Call me by funkatron · 2011-05-22 11:41 · Score: 1
  
  Also, "wan" is a word, apparently (thanks firefox)
  
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5. Re:Call me by Lucidus · 2011-05-22 12:33 · Score: 2
  
  'Wan' is a word. It means 'pale.'
6. Re:Call me by kent_eh · 2011-05-22 12:55 · Score: 1
  
  Lego porn (seriously)
  
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7. Re:Call me by drinkypoo · 2011-05-22 13:30 · Score: 1
  
  I see super 8 projectors (and others) at yard sales and flea markets all the time, and you could get one and the parts to illuminate it with LED as brightly as the original for dealextreme along with the used projector for less than the cost of the legos used to build this project.
  Now, that doesn't make this any less cool, but it does make it very silly.
  
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No, you neophyte! by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-22 08:55 · Score: 1

The horizontal Lego unit is 8mm. The vertical unit is 9.6mm (2.4mm for 1/3 height plates). You are hereby ordered to tear up your geek card.
1. Re:No, you neophyte! by NixieBunny · 2011-05-22 09:22 · Score: 1
  
  Technic LEGOs are 8mm tall. I don't know what is this "brick" thing you speak of.
  
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  The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
2. Re:No, you neophyte! by srodden · 2011-05-22 09:30 · Score: 1
  
  There are no LEGOs! LEGO is the brand! The pieces are, well, pieces (or bricks, blocks or units or whatever). To say LEGOs is like saying Sheeps!
  GET IT RIGHT! /internetpedant
  
  --
  Why can't we let people believe whatever they like? It's not like a little religion has ever hurt anyone.
3. Re:No, you neophyte! by NixieBunny · 2011-05-22 09:58 · Score: 2
  
  You try having kids and not calling them LEGOs. "Sammy! Clean up your LEGOs right this minute!"
  
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  The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
4. Re:No, you neophyte! by srodden · 2011-05-22 10:09 · Score: 1
  
  My parents used to call it "Lego" or "that mess" :-) Also we had a double-bed sheet that used to contain all my Lego. So cleaning up was a matter of grabbing 4 corners and lifting.
  TBH I've always detested the idea of having kids but now it occurs to me that it would give me an excuse to play with Lego again, it's starting to have a bit more appeal!
  
  --
  Why can't we let people believe whatever they like? It's not like a little religion has ever hurt anyone.
5. Re:No, you neophyte! by pookemon · 2011-05-22 17:10 · Score: 1
  
  Whatever happened to "This pig sty!"? It's pretty unlikely that the mess would only include "LEGOs".
  
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test by davidwr · 2011-05-22 08:55 · Score: 1, Offtopic

Yes, but does it run
o--o....o-o I..I....o-o..o----\...o-o.o-o../\/\ I..I....I.I..I.o-o.I..I.I.I.I..\../ I..o-o..I.I..I.I.I.I..I.o-o.I../..\ o----o..o-o..o-o.o-o..\-----o..\/\/
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Re:Pfft by Anonymous Coward · 2011-05-22 09:08 · Score: 1

yeah, yeah, and make the Lego blocks out of Linux kernels, and make the Linux kernels out of bucky-balls. By hand.
It is not a "video projector"... by cormandy · 2011-05-22 09:56 · Score: 1

It is a movie projector! You kids, I have to tell ya; why back in my days............
Oops... by dosh8er · 2011-05-22 10:50 · Score: 1

I guess that's what I get for hitting post without the proper Engrish parsing... Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, I'd say it's pretty cool. I'd put it up there with the Lego Antikythera mechanism: http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/01/29/0336249/A-Lego-Replica-of-the-Antikythera-Mechanism

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Nice by Artemis3 · 2011-05-22 12:37 · Score: 1

LED flashlight... finally something that will not burn the frame when it gets stuck. A bit too late tho. Funny that thing looks more reliable than a machine i had. Only thing is the "Super" part means magnetic audio, i don't think he has that in place.

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Your Linux, your init.
It's the film handling.... by meekg · 2011-05-22 12:41 · Score: 4, Informative

The important part is the film handler. Unlike a camera, which can run the film more or less continuously and use a fast shutter speed, a projector has to stop the film for most of the frame's duration, and then quickly accelerate it out of the way while only blocking the light for a very short duration, or else the movie would "smear". Of course it flickers, since this is Lego, but it doesn't smear, and that's quite a feat.
1. Re:It's the film handling.... by Rob+the+Bold · 2011-05-22 13:14 · Score: 1
  
  The important part is the film handler. Unlike a camera, which can run the film more or less continuously and use a fast shutter speed, a projector has to stop the film for most of the frame's duration, and then quickly accelerate it out of the way while only blocking the light for a very short duration, or else the movie would "smear". Of course it flickers, since this is Lego, but it doesn't smear, and that's quite a feat.
  OK, but I still think that if I were to start a project like this and realize that I needed a lens, lamp and reels, the best way to get them would be to cannibalize another projector . . .
  
  --
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Ping me back when it's at 16mm by atari2600a · 2011-05-22 14:45 · Score: 1

I actually have a school's old library of 16mm educational films, & a few movies, so I'm biased towards 16mm but the larger 18mm reels are heavy, it might not even be physically possible on Legos without turntables, but then you need to have angled rollers for the threading to get the picture up-right & all that...it'd take up the whole table :P
1. Re:Ping me back when it's at 16mm by atari2600a · 2011-05-22 14:46 · Score: 1
  
  *18" reels derp
Re:Pfft by Neil+Boekend · 2011-05-22 17:52 · Score: 1

You can probably build a Mindstorms robot to do that, instead of doing it by hand.

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Most frustrating show ever by name_already_taken · 2011-05-23 12:06 · Score: 1

The show being projected is: Gerry Anderson's UFO (TV series 1970–1971) Episode 12 The Psychobombs http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0735638/
Was there ever an episode of UFO where something actually happens?
I've watched a bunch of them and it's always just one or two things happening, never a complete story. So unsatisfying given the work that went into the visual look of 1969's version of 1980.
I wonder why the shirts made of string never caught on.

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