But I was correct in thinking the camera I was using for DV capture of tapes was not quite in alignment, and the other camera I had was doing a much better job. Which made it entirely worth it, although perhaps a bit silly if my luck on untested cameras continues later this week.
Shoutouts to the connector full of teeny tiny wires that, as far as I can tell, the CORRECT way to remove it is by wiggling it by the cables. Easily the most stressful part.
I now have a ziploc bodybag full of mostly working parts for this model plus some absolutely destroyed body parts. Not from me, I bought it that way.
Also not sure why the focus was all fucky after the main board swap and I had to match the lenses together, maybe one was zoomed in when I unplugged it or something? It would focus when zoomed but not when zoomed out, feels like the focus just fell out of sync. Manual didn't work either, it moved but didn't move far enough.