Arnold, A. Ciovati, G. Freitag, M. Justus, M. Kneisel, P. Lehnert, U. Lu, P.N. Ma, S. Michel, P. Murcek, P. Ryzhov, A.A. Schaber, J. Schneider, Ch. Steinbrück, R. Teichert, J. Vennekate, H. Xiang, R. JACoW Publishing Geneva, Switzerland At the electron accelerator for beams with high brilliance and low emittance (ELBE), the second version of a superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) photoinjector was brought into operation in 2014. After a period of commissioning, a gradual transfer to routine operation took place in 2017, so that now more than 1800h of user beam are generated every year. Since the commission, a total of 24 cathodes (2 Cu, 12 Mg, 10 Cs₂Te) have been used, without observing serious cavity degradation. The contribution summarizes commissioning and operational experience of the last 8 years of gun operation, with special emphasis on SRF properties but also on specialties such as dark current and multipacting that are directly linked to the integration of a normal conducting cathode into the SRF cavity.