WHICH SUPER-8 PROJECTORS TO BUY? (part 1 of 10)

A Super-8 motion picture projector fascinates to the smallest of the family... but not only them!, with its purring, its toothed wheels and the spinning reels. When projecting with a quality machine, watching a super-8 movie on the big screen, especially when using top quality emulsions like Kodak Ektachrome 7294, is an unforgettable experience impossible to emulate with digital projection, aseptic and cold.

Elmo GS1200 xenon

The arrival of  Kodak Ektachrome film for  Super-8,  in 2018,  has reactivated interest in the direct projection of reversal originals, to the point that Phil Vigeant, of Pro 8 mm, in Hollywood, has started selling Magnum projectors fully refurbished, like new and with warranty, modified to accept the brilliant 150W halogen lamp.

Braun Visacustic 2000 Digital

Will other companies follow the path marked by Pro 8mm? The truth is that the Super-8 projectors never turned off the lights completely. Tens of thousands of sound projectors, especially high-end ones, have survived video and DVD era... despite its constant use over the years. 

The beasts: The best of USA VS the beast of Austria

Remembered firms like Derann Films in England continued to sell new feature and short films until their closure in 2011, not long after the death of their founder Derek Simmonds. Even now, brand new  titles can be obtained by certain laboratories from internegative (also, of course, kinescopes, with tip-top quality), with some discretion, exclusively for private non-commercial use.

Fumeo 9143 HTI in the booth of a public auditorium

The latest handcrafted Super-8 sound projectors were built until the beginning of this century by Fumeo, in Milan, a firm that is highly reputed for its professional 16mm and Super-8 projectors, designed with oversized components and easy to repair, still in daily operation in the booths of many film libraries, filmoteques and art houses.But the Fumeo are industrial machines designed primarily for projecting from booths, too big and noisy for use in homes.

Eumig 940 Multiprocessor Stereo

You can find, however, other projectors, manufactured during the seventies, in the eighties and until the mid-nineties, of the highest quality in terms of performance, reasonable size, and even tiny, so well built that, almost half a century after leaving the factories, they are fully operational. They are little jewels of the technology, mixing principies of XIX Century with nowdays electronic, that not only allow magnificent projections but also the recording of complex soundtracks on the film itself, a craftsmanship again available to all filmmakers thanks to Movie Magnetic, the Italian laboratory that use paste magnetic "slurry" for the tracks, identical to the one used at the time by Kodak and Fujifilm, which adheres to both polyester and tricetate film bases, and never peels off.

Beaulieu Studio with anamorphic

In this series of ten articles, a digest of the one published in the international magazine SilverGrain Classics, are described the most interesting projectors to buy, depending on the use they will be put to. 

Originally published in SilverGrain Classics

Part 2 of 10, click here (compact super-8 projectors with fast pull down: Fujicascope SD Auto, Bauer T450, Bauer T430, Silma 90 Stereo, Noris 512)

Part 3 of 10, click here (great stereophonic projectors for small pockets: Fujicascope SD15, Yelco 630, Porst 215)

Part 4 of 10, click here (good mid range projectors: Elmo ST1299HD 2 tracks, Elmo GS800 Stereo, Fujicascope SH9, Sankyo 800, Yelco 810 MT Quartzmatic)

Part 5 of 10, click here (the best projectors with rear built-in screens)

Part 6 of 10, click here (Rear sprung pressure : Braun Visacustic, Beaulieu Studio Stereo, Heurtier, Noris, Agfa Sonector S) 

Part 7 of 10, click here  (The steampunk projector: Heurtier Stereovox) 

Part 8 of 10, click here (The best of the Eumig (938, 940) and Noris (342, 4100) range) 

Part 9 of 10, click here (projectors in the premium class category for the keen ciné enthusiast, as the Fujicascope SH30, Fujicascope SD25, the Bauer Studio range of projectors, the Elmo GS1200, the Beaulieu Studio, the Fumeo 9119 and the Braun Visacustic 2000)

Part 10 of 10, click here  (about Super-8 projectors for professional use in commercial theaters, capable of projecting in screens of 6 meters (20 ft) or more of wide, even at a great distance, at quality levels that touch the physical limits of the Super-8 system: Elmo GS1200 Xenon, Fumeo 9145 Xenon 500, Beaulieu Studio HTI250, Fumeo 9143 HTI250).

Addendum (about a compact-sized, kind with film, high-quality silent projector). There are days when you don't need a sound projector, but rather a small machine to see our recently processed films with high quality, without scratchs on films.

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