FUJIFILM FUJICS TM20 MINIVISION, DESK SUPER-8 MINI PROJECTOR

 At the age of ten years old, perhaps earlier, I began to make a pilgrimage through all the photo-shop windows in my city, La Coruña, in Galicia, a region in the Northwest of Spain. I really liked the one (now-defunct) Foto Blanco, in the Plaza de Vigo, as it always had, in the shop window, Castle Films digests, with their lovely boxes with beautiful art, of horror classics from Universal. In that store I bought my first two Castle Films films, when I was 13 years old, but that's a story for another day.

Size in comparison with a Super-8 cartridge

Suddenly, one day in 1972, a mini-projector Fujifilm appeared in the shop window of Foto Blanco,  that looked like something out of a James Bond movie! In the ad on the poster, on the back of the device, it said: "Why wait by mounting the screen and darkening the room when you receive a film after it is processing? You can see each reel immediately, in your office or at home, without the need for darkening! Thanks to Fujifilm's new technological achievement: the Fujics TM20 screen built-in rear projector!"

Unfortunately, it was very expensive for an 11 or 12 year old young enthusiast, and I could never buy it. The device was a success in Spain as the units imported by Mampel-Asens were sold as hot cakes, and soon identical ones emerged with the Erno brand (also made by Sansei Koki, Goko, in Japan).

All units of the Fujifilm TM20 were sold during that winter,  but I could never forget the device in all these years. This week, my friend José Manuel, a Fuji-fan like me, found a new-old stock unsold unit, in his original box, in Foto Romero´s warehouse. His owner gave it to him and he gave it to me as a gift. Happiness this summer! After half a century of waiting, I finally become a owner of a Fujics TM20 Minivision! 

My friend José Manuel

At IB Cinema, José Manuel opened it, before switch on.  The first wonderful surprise was to see that it does not have belts, but only gears: it is louder, but requires less maintenance. José Manuel cleaned the mirrors, the internal face of the screen, greased each moving part and replaced the obsolete 6V 10W lamp with a modern halogen one (the LED light is not suitable for cinematographic applications). 

Not belts here, only gears

It works perfectly!!!, with a clear, sharp and bright image. The best of all:  it treats the films very kindly, with its guide and pressor not made of plastic, but of steel. I checked with recently developed film, "green film", with the emulsion still soft, and it did not produce a scratch: wonderful!!! 

Old tungsten lamp...

 It is puzzling that the reels are placed the other way around than it would be logical: perhaps it is a Japanese idiosyncrasy, since there, the Japanese start reading the books at the end! Rewinding, for which the pressure pad must be retracted, is very fast. 

...replaced with the new halogen bulb

The noise produced by the device, which could bother some, gives me such an intense cinematic sensation that, from now on, this Fujifilm device will remain installed on the desk in the HAL9000 room at IB Cinema.