Hello! I am very very interested in the concept as a whole when it comes to the repurposing of older security cameras into just normal cameras. I love the project idea and I hope I am not late to the discussion. The simple curiosity of making 'what could' into 'what is' is something we share. I would like to hear about your experience and if you went through with it at all.

Mod; link to old thread.
https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/...portable-recording-device.203126/post-1938918

 

An interesting concept indeed, but not new!! I have some suggestions about things to consider before spending much time or any money on the project. These questions were presented to me many years ago and still are a very good set of considerations:
First, how good are the resolution and picture quality of those security cameras?? Understand that not all cameras are equal! Second question: Are the cameras even color cameras, or just black and white?? That makes a big difference. A B&W camera may be fine for a kids toy, but not that good for home videos. And a third question: What sort of power do the cameras require?? I have some security cameras that operate from 120 volt mains plug-in power, and some others that are quite nice but they use 24 volts AC power. That would be OK for some applications, but not for portable use outside.
So there are some considerations to think about. And I have one camera that has the image of a store room with shelves burned into the vidicon tube. I was not aware that was even possible.

 

An interesting concept indeed, but not new!! I have some suggestions about things to consider before spending much time or any money on the project. These questions were presented to me many years ago and still are a very good set of considerations:
First, how good are the resolution and picture quality of those security cameras?? Understand that not all cameras are equal! Second question: Are the cameras even color cameras, or just black and white?? That makes a big difference. A B&W camera may be fine for a kids toy, but not that good for home videos. And a third question: What sort of power do the cameras require?? I have some security cameras that operate from 120 volt mains plug-in power, and some others that are quite nice but they use 24 volts AC power. That would be OK for some applications, but not for portable use outside.
So there are some considerations to think about. And I have one camera that has the image of a store room with shelves burned into the vidicon tube. I was not aware that was even possible.

Thank you for your insight! I have already started on making my own and I have already been following some of the things you talked about.
I bought a very cheap Panasonic camera off of ebay as a proof of concept and am currently looking at ordering the correct parts necessary to turn it into a working camera. It runs off pf DC12v with 700ma and I have already ordered the proper battery for it. The camera I have does have color and a built in infrared night mode but I will for sure have to boost colors and saturation in post if I ever want to use this for anything artistic. The next step after that is ordering a recording device which I took inspo from people repurposing old tape handycams into a digital format. They mostly use mini dvr's which is a perfect pick for someone wanting to record on the go! After that its up to finding a way to monitor the video feed which I found some useful tutorials for.
I was interested in documenting other projects like this and was wondering if you know about anyone or any information on this more niche side project. Im not surprised these 'upcycled' security camera projects arnt the most popular thing ever but when I went digging it was very undocumented. Im hoping you could share some stuff about it, and thank you for the reply!