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Topic: 35mm is the best!!!
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Jean-Marc Toussaint
Film God
Posts: 2392
From: France
Registered: Oct 2004
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posted June 23, 2009 12:58 PM
For those who are not familiar with 35 mm projection, I want to clarify a few things.
When we say "Portable", it is wiser to say "Transportable" as these machines are most of the time heavier than a dead donkey. The Cinemec PX1600 weighs 29kg (64 pounds), my Kinoton FP23 weighs 49kg (108 pounds). Once set up, you don't move them around much. Or you put them on wheels.
They are not all "self-contained" (ie plug and play). The Cinemec models are, some older portable machines from Proyecson are, the Buysse-Botazzi 35BB is, the most excellent Portacine from Cinemeccanina is. I think there's also one model from Microcine. What do I mean by "self contained"? They feature a small rectifier - providing they use xenon light (which is not always the case) - a sound amplifier and (sometimes) a built-in speaker. Basically, they are/look like overgrown 16mm machines.
Others will need a separate sound system. You can start with a good old home theatre amp but you soon realize this isn't enough. So you get yourself a Dolby processor, 6 channels of amplification and the adequate speakers. Providing your machine is equipped with a stereo cell (which is not always the case).
If you want to be able to project properly recent trailers and films, your sound head will need to be fitted with a red LED/laser system. The new "cyan track" - designed basically to eliminate silver in the printing of optical track - will not play really well with old exciter lamp systems.
After that, you can also go digital (I'm equipped with DTS sound - that requires a special decoder on the projector and a special CD unit - the result is mind blowing)
To work with Xenon light, some projectors like the "portable" Spectra (Chinese machines that can be purchased new - similar to the one pictured above - our friend Robert just bought two) need a separate rectifier/ballast for continuous power.
Then there's the lens (or lenses) as there's no such thing as a simple zoom lens. Only primers in 2.5mm increments. The best ones are from ISCO or Schneider (they are now the same company). For long-throw, you can sometimes attach an adaptor device (the one I have is called a Magnacom) that will either enlarge or reduce slightly the size of your projected image. There are formulas and softwares to help you with the choice of lenses once you know your screen size and projection distance.
For example, I have a 12ft screen for my set-up at 20ft throw. It is a screen meant for video projection, therefore 1.78:1.
I can fill it in "flat" (1.85:1) with a 35mm lens, use a 50mm optic for 1.66:1 and 1.37:1 and create a letterboxed image for cinemascope with a 70mm lens and anamorphic attachment.
Then there's is the film transport... (Robert, I still have spares to build a Cinemeccanica tower...) Most portable machines are able to play 6000ft spools. The Spectra models need to be fitted with special/longer arms. My Kinoton was originally customized with a 6000ft Microcine film transport. I have removed and replaced it with an IDEF tower for up to 15000ft of film (that's more than 3 hours).
There you have it. I think I covered everything. I also want to add that I still run a lot of super 8 and 16 ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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The Grindcave Cinema Website
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Brad Miller
Administrator
Posts: 525
From: Dallas, TX, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted June 23, 2009 08:42 PM
I collect 35mm and 70mm film, but still have a couple of titles in Super 8mm (mostly for the novelty). I never got into 16mm. I just couldn't stomach the bad mono sound.
35mm need not take up a lot of storage room. The trick is simple...6000 foot reels. If you store your prints on 2000 foot (normal "shipping") reels, you will require a warehouse to store a few dozen prints. If you store your prints fully built up on 12000+ foot reels (sometimes called "tower" reels), you will also need a warehouse to store your prints, although you can store a few more that way as opposed to 2000 footers.
When you store on 6000 foot reels (roughly one hour playing time each), you hit that happy spot where you can cram the most amount of prints into one room. For example, I have a room that is 12x16 and I can store over 400 35mm prints in there...fully built up, ready to run on my automated changeover system. This way if the movie is roughly 2 hours or shorter, I can thread up both projectors and walk out of the booth to enjoy the entire movie uninterrupted. If the movie is long, such as 2.5 or 3 hours, somewhere in the middle hour I only need to wander into the booth for a couple of minutes to load up that third reel. Other 35mm collector friends of mine only have one projector, so they just do a short intermission at the halfway point.
Its all in HOW you organize your storage once you move into the world of 35mm.
As far as portability, I once setup a full sized Century SA machine for a friend of mine that ran 6000 foot reels and only took up 2x6 feet of floor space. It was built onto a "piano dolly" type of base so the entire system could be rolled out of the storage closet into position and with a couple of quick connections he was on screen. ![[Cool]](cool.gif)
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