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Author
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Topic: Eumig Mark S 701: very interesting design....
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Joseph Banfield
Film Handler
Posts: 93
From: FRANCE
Registered: Jun 2010
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posted March 04, 2019 04:58 AM
Last Saturday I picked up a Eumig Mark S 701 (super 8 only) sound projector from my local flea market for next to nothing. It's not like a needed yet another machine but this vintage made machine just caught my eye since it looked absolutely pristine so I grabbed it! Apparently it shares the same owner's manual as the Mark S 709, but since I have no manual I assume that not all I say about the Mark S 701 will apply to the Mark S 709.
This machine is much heavier than any of the Eumig 800 series of machines because it uses a tube amp that uses three vacuum tubes with a huge transformer. Ingenious how they were able to put an entire tube amp into a cabinet that is the same size as the later 800 series. My first thought was that the capacitors would be failing by now since this machine started production in 1966 and continued until 1969. But everything checked out perfectly and surprisingly it played the soundtrack on the film loud and clear!
An unexpected surprise was the ingenious coupling between the on/off volume control that keeps the pressure pad off the sound head when the amplifier is turned off. As soon as the amplifier is switched on the pressure pad again locks against the sound head...ingenious and totally automatic in operation! A real feature for those who dislike that this is not possible on the 800 series.
I looked on the inching knob to locate the dot for removing the gate...there was no dot or any other type of indication like the 800 series has. It became obvious why that was since only the front section of the gate slips out while the back portion is held in place with screws. With this design there is no possibility of breaking off the two pull-down pins when removing the gate, which happens all too often on the 800 series where both pieces of the gate are removed together. It does however mean you must remove the lens to clean the back section of the gate, which some may not like much.
Another nice feature is the two, 2 watt 12 volt lamps used during threading the machine, which is only automatic just through the projection gate and the rest is done manually. Nice to have some light when changing reels and threading. The lights are turned off as soon as the projection lamp is switched on.
Focusing is a joy when compared to the often very sloppy focusing of the 800 series and the use of all that plastic in the mount. The lens screws in and out and holds focus perfectly and the zoom is nice and smooth and pulls and pushes instead of turning like their later lenses. Very nicely built lens!
The drive mechanism is identical to the later 800 series with the familiar rubber drive discs, which we all know and mostly hate! Many have complained that the older Eumig tube amps have a lot of hum but I did not find this to be true on this model, in fact, I would say that the transistorized 800 series has far more hum actually!
So, that is my review of this vintage machine and perhaps it will be of help to someone considering purchasing this model. The build quality is simply superb but very, very heavy to lug around!
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted March 04, 2019 09:11 AM
Joseph, excellent and very interesting review. Sounds to me that the 700 series were a better design in some respects than the 800 series. When you think about it, the idea on the 800 series that you have to make sure the claw is withdrawn before removing the gate, (otherwise you break off the claw), is a bit ridiculous for a consumer product. So you forget to do this one time and you have ruined your machine! The feature of the sound pressure pad only being engaged when the amp is switched on is really nice, saving a lot of head wear when projecting silent films. And the semi- automatic threading is probably preferable because you can easily remove the film from the projector at any time. Finally, the screw thread focusing is way superior to the sloppy cam and pin focusing of the later Eumigs. The Bolex 18-5 has screw threads on the lens barrel, and it is ultra precise.
All these features that you mention on the 700 series make the 800 series seem like a somewhat compromised design.
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The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
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