Converting old film cameras, particularly movie cameras, to digital has become a lot more viable over the last few years as devices like the Raspberry Pi and small form factor cameras to go with them have become more prevalent – even if there’s still a massive shortage going on right now. We’ve seen projects pop up lately showing some very cool conversion projects but this one dates all the way back to 1957.

The subject of this particular conversion is the Bell and Howel 172 Magazine-loading 8mm camera. Created by Airpocket, his goal was to keep the camera as original as possible and keep the “keep modern modifications to a minimum”. Of course, he had to add a Raspberry Pi to record the image but that’s pretty much the only alteration to the camera. Everything else is pretty much as is.

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