NEW MONITOR SCREEN FOR THE EUMIG 940, FOR FREE, THANKS TO MATS ABELLI.

This is the second time that the Swede film enthusiast Mats Abelli has done me a favour. The first time was, when on the occasion of the filming of "Spitsbergen, the Guardian of the Arctic" he got my suitcase full of Super-8 cartridges to pass without X-ray control at the Oslo airport. The second, by giving me, fully free, a totally new monitor screen for my beloved Eumig 940 Multiprocessor. It arrived today, very well packaged, and still in its original box!!!

Gift brand new with original box, from Mats

Now I have three !!! How is that? The other day, when I asked for help in Super-8mm group in Facebook group (the largest dedicated to the format on this social network), in case someone sold me one of this monitor viewers for my Eumig 940 (since mine has the screen with the screen detached and a small crack on the edge, and I like to have everything that I use impeccable), my friend Renzo dal Bo wrote me that there was one for sale in Italy: although the seller dont want to sell it abroad, Renzo convinced him to to sell it to me.

Second one, purchased in Italy

I had just accepted the asking prince when Mats wrote to me that he had a brand new Eumig monitor that he was giving me as a gift. So, I had two brand new monitors and one used... but only for a short time, because the used monitor (which I was thinking of mounting on the Eumig 938), I gave it for free to Alex for his 940.

One new unit for the 940, the other one for the 938

Alex is now very happy because he says that in an afternoon of work he will leave it immaculate, and I own two new viewers: one for my 940 and other one for my 938. Thank you very much, again, Mats for your gift. And also to Renzo, for the time spent convincing the Italian salesman.

My old unit, in use from 1981 until now (40 years!!!) for Alex

FUMEO 9143: LIMPIANDO LA POLEA

Este Fumeo 9143, para lámpara HTI250W y con cabezales estereofónicos, lleva décadas de servicio a sus espaldas, ¡y eso que se trata de un prototipo!, que luego se comercializaría, aunque a pequeña escala.

Como toca cambiarle la correa, aprovecho para limpiarle las poleas, con acetona y combustible de Zippo, de la grasa, goma y otros mejunjes de aspecto radioactivo incrustados tras tantos años en uso, siguiendo las indicaciones de mi amigo José Manuel MacFuji.  ¿Cómo poner la correa en este proyector? Es un misterio: tal vez exija cirugía mayor. Este aparato lo usamos, en IB Cinema, cuando necesitamos proyectar Súper-8 en pantallas colosales a gran distancia, con un equipo compacto, pero capaz de pasar largometrajes de un tirón (cuando las programación no es de largometraje, o se puede hacer una interrupción, es mas conveniente el Elmo GS1200 Xenon, pues es mas fácil de transportar). El arrastre del brazo posterior lleva, en esta versión del Fumeo 9143, su propio motor.

Admite bobinas de 800 metros

 

FINE SPEED ADJUSTMENT IN SILMA PROJECTORS.

The Renzo Stroboscopic Device is like a drug: since I have a unit, I can't stop to adjusting the speed of the projectors!, on their internal trimmers (even if they have external adjustment). 

In this post, I will describe how to adjust the Silma range of projectors of the last batch, such the extraordinarily beautiful Blue Memory 75 and 90, but the indications apply too  to others built in the Turin factory and sold as other brands, such as, among others, the Canon T2000 and Canon T3000 or the Bauer T430 and T450. The trimmer for the fine tuning of speed is located on these projectors behind the main motor, as seen in the photo. 

To properly adjust these projectors from the Turin factory, the machine must be at 24 f.p.s. Once perfectly adjusted to this speed, 18 f.p.s. they will be perfect (or almost).

Renzo's Stroboscopic Device needs to aim its light at a toothed wheel. These projectors only have one. What to do when if the only  toothed wheel  is hidden from view,  as happen whit the Bauer T450? 

The technician filmmaker Luigi Petrin told me the secret: we must point with the stroboscopic light to the exit of the film behind the wheel: when you see that the perforations "are still" the adjustment is perfect.

9000 MEMBERS IN SUPER8 MM GROUP

This week the Super 8mm group, the largest on Facebook dedicated to the coolest film gauge, has surpassed the 9,000-member barrier! To commemorate this fact, we featured a new cover, with young Spanish filmmaker Andrea Dominguez shooting as it snows in NorthWestern Spain with the Eumig Nautica underwater camera  loaded with Kodak Ektachrome 7294 film.  This picture is a Fujichrome Velvia slide, shot by Alex López. Why is Alex using Velvia? Ektachrome slides are sold locally at 25 euro, but fresh Velvia at 15 euro!!!

Also, very good news for this blog. This week we have exceeded 500,000 readings!!! As most readers, even when the articles are published in Spanish, come from the United States, the texts are increasingly being published in English.

EUMIG 940 MULTIPROCESSOR: IT´S GONE DOWN THE DRAIN!

 I have a special relationship with the Eumig 940 Multiprocessor Stereo projector. It is the first good projector that I bought, when I was a student at the University, at the Arpí store on the Ramblas in Barcelona, ​​where Mr. Noya allowed me to pay it in monthly installments. 

With the 940 I did my first complex soundtrack with stereophonic sound, for the experimental "Universita ... what?" (1981) --shot with my Fuji ZC1000, still with me and in use today!-:

 

UNIVERSITA...¿QUÉ? (1981) from IB CINEMA Motion Picture Films on Vimeo.

Later, I would stop using it, in favor of other more practical projectors, but I always had it there, because I enjoy looking at it (with its spectacular control console and, above all, its gigantic digital frame counter). 

Over time, I got to buy another two units used but in mint pristine condition (one of them now owned by my good friend Alex) and another, defective unit, to cannibalize for parts in the future.

 

A few days ago, I decided to get one of my two Eumig 940s ready for occasional use in the HAL9000 room at IB Cinema. I cleaned and oiled it carefully, as well as adjusted the speed regulator with the Renzo Stroboscopic Device. 

When I was ready, I tested it with "Django" when suddenly, a loud noise started to be heard. I stopped the projection, extracted the film difficultally (one of the drawbacks of this projector is that it cannot be unthread) and I saw with horror what had happened: the worn gear had broken!!! 

Fixing this is an operation of major surgery, impossible for me to do. Good thing Alex volunteered to do it !!!

WIDE ANGLE ZOOM LENS FOR 16 MM PROJECTOR... WITH ZERO COST!

One of the problems when I´m inspecting 16mm film in the office is making a screen big enough. Using the standard focal length in 16 mm (50 mm), with the screen on the same table as the projector, only can be obteined a size similar to that of a postcard. 

Things get a little better with Kern's 35-65mm,  Swiss made zoom for exceptional performance. And even more so with the Fumeo 25-45mm (actually a 35mm Isco lens with a Sankor converter). I also have a 10mm Isco ultra-wide angle (obtained thanks to Marco Sonetti), but it gives too big an image!

 How did I solve the problem and also with a limited budge? Incredible as it may seem, I have adapting a Super-8 zoom. 

How is this possible, if they all have a much smaller barrel, 32mm versus 42mm for the European standard for 16mm projection optics. All? No! 

There is a very rare cartridge projector, made by Bolex in Switzerland, whose lenses, incredible as it may seem, come with a 42mm barrel. In its set of optional lenses, there is an exceptional quality zoom, the Bolex f 1.1 from 17 to 34 mm (made by Kern), which, since it cannot be attached to any other Super-8 projector, can be bought almost for peanuts! Mine, in particular, was given to me a few years ago by an English friend, Roy Salmmons. 

After a little surgery to remove a python n the barrel, I adapted this extraordinary zoom lens to my desktop 16 mm projector Fumeo 9271 Vatican. 

It works!!!Very happy with the result: the focal length range is just what I need, it is bright and very sharp. It has a bit of vignetting, in every corner, but for the purpose that I am going to use it, to check filma, not for public projection, I do not care at all. 

In this world, nothing is impossible, with a little of imagination and experimentation.

SCHNEIDER F 1.1 11-30 MM PARA EL SILMA BLUE MEMORY 90

Cuando todo se daba por perdido, cuando ya no había esperanza, la última fábrica de proyectores de cine europea en grandes series, Silma, en ese entonces perteneciente a Robert Bosch, lanzó en 1982 sus dos aparatos de la gama Blue Memory, diseñados por Giullia Moselli.

Los Silma Blue Memory (75 y 90, con pequeñas diferencias, como el objetivo) fueron el último gran esfuerzo italiano para un mercado declinante, con una máquina sumamente electrónica tan hermosa como complicada (¡sus cabezales magnéticos entran en funcionamiento con un servomotor!).

Es tan bonito, el Silma Blue Memory 90, que tengo uno permanentemente en la sala HAL9000 de IB Cinema, no tanto para usarlo, por su talón de Aquiles (carece de rodillo dentada de admisión: ¡es el garfio el que tira de la película!), sino para deleitarme mirándolo.

Su objetivo original, aparentemente sin marca, es de calidad calidad, el f 1.2 15.5-28 mm, que, aunque bastardo. está hecho por Scheneider. Sin embargo, recientemente he tenido la fortuna de obtener el non plus ultra de los zoom Schneider, el famoso f 1.1 11-30 mm, en la montura especial para el Silma: ¿qué mejor que comenzar un lunes instalándolo? 

El pequeño Silma Blue Memory no sólo es una preciosidad, sino que ahora hace unas proyecciones espectaculares en la pequeña pantalla de la sala HAL9000, para verificar metrajes recién revelados.

SILMA: UN POCO DE HISTORIA.

Cuando Robert Bosch le compró a Rocco Canelli, en 1970,  la histórica firma turinesa famosa por sus proyectores sonoros desde los tiempos del 8 mm normal (que fabricaba incluso para otras marcas acreditadas, como Canon, Bell & Howell,  Fumeo o, entre otros,  Bolex), la venta de aparatos era un mercado en ascenso.
Con la entrada de Bosch, ciertos modelos de Bauer pasaron a fabricarse en Turín e, incluso aquellos modelos de la serie Studio, montados en Sttugart, contenían elementos completos manufacturados en Italia.
En aquella época la cuota de mercado de Silma en Italia era alucinante: ¡el 70 por ciento de los proyectores vendidos!
Con la llegada de Bosch, la producción se incrementa y el número de empleados en la fábrica pasa de 640 a 1.000 en poco tiempo, ¡subiendo a 1.400 en 1974!, año en el que llegaron a colocar 250.000 proyectores. Buena parte de la mano de obra eran mujeres.

1975: EL SÚPER-8 TOCA TECHO.

Como ya hemos publicado varias veces en esta bitácora, el mercado del Súper-8 alcanza su punto álgido en 1975. Las ventas se mantienen estables hasta 1978 y, a partir de ahí, comienzan a declinar. En sólo dos años, Silma se ve forzada a reducir la plantilla de 1.188 trabajadores a 601.
En 1981, cuando Kodak cesa la publicidad de sus películas de Súper-8, Robert Bosch vende Silma a Interbasic, una sociedad de capital riesgo con sede en Luxemburgo, sin relación con el mundo del cine.
Desgraciadamente, con el vídeo ya entrando a todos los niveles, las ventas descienden drásticamente cada año. Silma resiste hasta 1986, con sólo 40 empleados, hasta que se ve forzada a declararse en bancarrota.