Has anyone tried building a digital RAW camera around Normal 8mm / D-mount lenses?

[jzagaja]

Hi everyone,

I’m wondering if anyone here has tried to build a small digital RAW camera specifically around Normal 8mm / Regular 8mm cine lenses, especially D-mount zooms like the SOM Berthiot Pan-Cinor 8–40mm.

The idea is not to make another action camera or phone rig, but something closer to a tiny indie digital 8mm camera:

• small sensor matched to the Normal 8mm image circle
• D-mount flange distance
• RAW10 / RAW12 capture
• global shutter if possible
• simple HDMI preview
• recording to SSD
• film-like color pipeline: linear matrix, log curve, gentle highlight roll-off
• maybe later: piezo micro-shift or a controlled “organic” sensor/optical movement to reduce the fixed digital feel

I have been looking at sensors/modules such as Sony IMX900 and AR0234. The IMX900 seems more realistic as a ready Raspberry Pi 5 camera kit, but the AR0234 is very attractive because it is cheap, global shutter, 1920×1200, RAW10, and available in color and monochrome versions. The problem is the usual one: MIPI carrier board, Raspberry Pi compatibility, V4L2/libcamera driver, power rails, initialization registers, etc.

The goal would be around 1080p or 2K rather than fake “4K”, because these old Normal 8mm lenses have their own character and don’t need a huge modern sensor. I’m more interested in a compact RAW camera with a real vintage 8mm optical look than in maximum resolution.

Has anyone here tried something similar?

I would be especially interested in:

• D-mount digital camera experiments
• Normal 8mm lens coverage on modern sensors
• Raspberry Pi / Jetson / RK3588 MIPI RAW capture
• AR0234 or IMX900 RAW workflows
• custom small camera bodies
• monochrome sensor + RGB filter experiments
• piezo sensor shift / film gate weave simulation

I’m currently trying to understand whether it makes more sense to use a ready IMX900 Raspberry Pi kit, or to go deeper with a cheaper AR0234 OEM module and somehow solve the carrier board / driver problem.

Any experience, links, warnings, or crazy ideas welcome.