8mm Forum: super 8 picture stability & reliability

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Topic: super 8 picture stability & reliability

Tassos Laudas
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 102
From: Viersen Germany
Registered: Mar 2006

posted February 25, 2007 04:05 PM

There are two things regarding super 8 projecting i've been curious about for many years, and i would appreciate your opinions about them. The first one has to do with the lack of absolute picture stability more or less obvious between different s8 projectors, which can be often intrusive and obvious to even inexperienced audience, by contrast with the 100% 35mm stable picture we all experience in cinemas. Does this have to do with the film format itself, with the film age & condition? Or is it inevitable?
The second thing is the much discussioned projector reliability: Does this,apart from the build quality itself, depend on the working hours or on the way the owner treates the machine regardless of the hours of use? To put it another way, let's suppose i own a projector with many plastic parts, a BOWER T525, or an EUMIG 938 for instance. Should i take for granted that they'll last much less than, let's say, my Elmo st1200 which has the advantage of much less plastic, or do they just need another treatment, long pauses between watching different films that might help the relatively sensitive plastic parts to cool down, for example?
Hope i haven't written too much! Thank you in advance!!!

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Dan Lail
Film God

Posts: 2110
From: Loganville, Georgia, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted February 25, 2007 04:18 PM

Hi Tassos, try coating your films with Filmguard. I had the same problem with unsteady film projection. Filmguard lubricates, cleans and even improves picture quality. Do a search for Filmguard and read about it.

As far as projector wear. The better made the projector, the longer the parts will last. If possible get a junker projector for replacement parts. Also, check out the free projector manuals here at film-tech.

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Maurizio Di Cintio
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 977
From: Ortona, Italy
Registered: Jan 2004

posted February 25, 2007 05:10 PM

Hi Tassos.
Personally I don't think projectors' picture steadyness is so bas as you say: I happen sometimes to experience worse film registration even in top-notch multiplex cinemas. If a S/8 prj is in perfect working conditions, image stability is really good. Obviously I am referring to optical prints here which are only unsteady if a printing problem occurred or (more likely) if the film hasn't been treated like Dan suggested. Lubricated films are much less noisy and very noticeably steadier than a dried-up old print (or even a green printm for that matter).

When screening camera originals though, it's a totally different matter; in fact steadyness in that case relies on camera and cartridge precision, much more than on the projector. You get almost perfet results in terms of imafe satbility with some cameras and cartridges, but cheaper cameras may deliver not prefectly registered images. This is inherent to the format, because of its tolerances in both the cartridge and the camera. Some people claim it can be corrected with a small additional pressure plate called "frame master", which I tested and didn't find convincing at all.
The best is to live with that, using S/8 for what it can deliver.

--------------------
Maurizio

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Tassos Laudas
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 102
From: Viersen Germany
Registered: Mar 2006

posted February 28, 2007 05:16 AM

Dan and Maurizio thank you for your answers! Dan i've already ordered this filmguard, Maurizio i'll certainly live with some small s8 inadequacies, it's just that i was wondering how i could avoid this frame movement which all my s8 projectors present. The funny thing is that some optical prints i own have the most steady picture...

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