Author
|
Topic: Elmo design flaw?
|
Adrian Winchester
Film God
Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004
|
posted January 18, 2011 08:36 AM
I've rarely if ever seen this flaw discussed, so I wondered if others agree. Over the years, I've owned 6 Elmo Super 8 sound projectors (5 different models) and at least 3 of them would at least sometimes scratch films when run in reverse. This was not the result of wear, it was liable to happen right from the start even when the projector was brand new. In one instance, the projector would more or less always do this, whilst with the others it was more unpredicatable and perhaps depended on the exact form of the lower loop. The scratches when this happens are not a continuous line, they are quite bad emulsion marks on the right side of the picture, not completely straight, maybe covering about half of the height of the frame. I suspect that they result from the film hitting against the curved piece of plastic to the right of the film, in-between the bottom of the gate and the sound head. I've found this even with an early 1990s ST-180, so I'm surprised that Elmo never fully eradicated the problem.
Obviously, most people don't normally run films in reverse, but it's worth keeping in mind if while you're watching a film, you answer the 'phone and then reverse the projector to see what you missed. I did this recently with an Elmo I'd never properly checked out in reverse, and I was grateful that it was a film of very little value!
-------------------- Adrian Winchester
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|