Panasonic NV GS11 Storage

Hi there! Sadly, as Mini Dv is an analog I dont think you can convert it to take an SD card in the traditional sense, but if your camera has any sort of video output, you could probably build your own capture card with a raspberry pi. The intent I have here is to store a rapsberry pi within the tape compartment, though I'm not sure if that would work.

To start with video, while it isnt natively supported, there is a device (albeit expensive) that lets you receive video input on the pi. It uses its camera port for 1080p photos and video. 

 

Now you said you wanted to use a micro/SD card, which I found 3 solutions for, all having their caveats. 

The 1st option is to use a pi that can boot without an sd card. While most pi devices require some form of sd card to boot, a few models (RPi3B(+), CM3 and RPi2B2) can boot by other means, such as usb or onboard storage. I believe the rpi3b+ lets you boot from usb out of the box, which would allow you to hook up a sd card reader to it as removable storage. SanDisk and PNY make tiny usb drives that would be ideal for this, as finding space to fit a pi within a camera is no easy task. 

The 2nd option is to simply store images to the same sd card that the pi is running on, though you'd need a linux computer just to be able to access your files. Theoretically you could partition the sd card in ext4 for the pi OS, and have another exFAT partition for your pictures and videos, but this really isnt optimal.

The 3rd option is basically the opposite of the 1st. Instead of booting from usb you boot from an sd card and use a usb device for storage. While this would be pretty handy, and relatively simply to impliment, I understand if you believe it's not really in the spirit of this project. 

 

Personally, I would plan on getting a Pi3B+ as it natively supports USB booting. From then, I would get it booting from a SanDisk Cruzer. After that I would confirm that the pi is reading my sd card as I insert it into the system. Then I would get a spring loaded micro/SD port extender (this is also called a "push-push" type slot). Connect one end of the extender to my pi and DIY a port in my camera to mount the other end of the extender. This is where you'd be inserting and ejecting your card. After that, it's just a matter of programming.

Raspivid saves you the trouble of having to code much, but to make the camera function properly, you will need to rewire the buttons that handle actually taking the photos/videos within the camera using the Pi's GPIO (the 2 long, black rows of header pins). This is actually much easier to accomplish than you'd think. You can watch a video on using the Pi's GPIO here.

 

The only hurdle left is actually powering the pi. Thankfully, with such a low workload, you dont exactly need a 400w power supply. If the space permits it, I'd simply throw an external power bank next to the pi and call it a day, but this part is all up to you. In fact, there isn't much else to do with this project. You could add some nice features like a sound that plays whenever you take a picture or start/stop recording, but really its all up to preference.

 

Sources:

Pi Video Input Video

HDMI Input to Pi Camera Board

Micro SD as Removable Storage Discussion

Pi GPIO Tutorial

 

If you could find a SD-tape converter, that would be easy, but all I know are for music, not video. You could also try looking for external capture devices. But unless you really like the device, getting a new one might provide much better results with similar prices to the tape recorder.