8mm Forum: Eumig 614D review and mod

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Posted by Joseph Banfield (Member # 2082) on March 21, 2019, 04:54 AM:

The Eumig 614D is basically an updated version of the Eumig 610D. The mechanical drive mechanism is identical in every way to the 610D. The changes that were made are mostly outside cosmetics, which are an improvement when compared to the 610D. The 614D uses a completely different lens and mount than what was used on the 610D. I must say it is a great improvement over the old sloppy mount of the 610D (same as was used on the 800 series) With the different lens mount and lens on the 614D the focus is easy and very precise and stays put once it is focused!

What I didn't like about the 614D was that they took away the lamp pre-heating that had been used on the 610D. Having a look inside the machine revealed that the transformer lacked the winding for the lower voltage pre-heating but was otherwise identical in every way to the transformer of the 610D. The 610D uses an extra connection on its transformer that connects to the switch (this wire is blue). Since the 614D uses the exact same switch but with an empty connection where the blue wire from the transformer should be it was a five minute job to swap out the transformer and solder the blue wire to the switch...viola, now we have lamp pre-heat on the 614D! Personally I like lamp pre-heat as it really seems to make those lamps last much longer as they don't have to start from a cold filament.

Another interesting design element on this machine is the elaborate two-pin pulldown in the film gate. The design is quite crazy but does work well. All other dual format machines will use only a single pin for pulldown. How Eumig did that was to seperate the two pins by about an inch and a half in the gate. At that distance this pin registration can be used for both 8mm and Super 8 while using a two pin pulldown...ingenious design! But with this radically different system a much higher torque is needed to set it into motion and a normal small motor would not be able to start it running. To overcome this Eumig installed a circular would spring on the end of the armature of the motor. What this spring does is that it winds up like a clock spring while the motor starts and when wound up tight it finally applies power to the mechanism at full torque, which is required with this mechanism...very, very clever and it all happens within a fraction of a second at startup!

Posted by Jason Moffatt (Member # 4416) on March 21, 2019, 06:06 PM:

I have one of these and yes the focus mechanism is a big improvement over the earlier machines.I’ve put a 1.3 lens in mine from a eumig 910 which uses the same focus mechanism and it is a slight improvement over the standard 1.4 which the 614 came with and it also gives a larger picture.

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