Technological Pipe Dreaming

[frustratedpilot]

A few weeks ago (the week before Halloween) I was on a drive and passed by a yard sale and I noticed a camcorder among the offerings. With the switch from tape to DVD format, a lot of tape-based camcorders are out there and unused, and I was thinking if it could be possible to buy one and remove the tape output hardware and replace it with something more compatible...say a digital output to USB and a key drive?

I know this is uber-geekish. But I've always wanted a video camera with which I could terrorize the world express my visual creativity and all that, and I would rather reuse/recycle/renew than buy new. Has anybody done this before? Anybody know where I can look for information?