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Topic: Eumig S938 Stereo Test Report

Paul Adsett
Film God

Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted February 03, 2006 12:54 PM

EUMIG S938 STEREO PROJECTOR
The Eumig S938 Stereo projector is a full stereo capable machine with 150 watt lighting, 800ft spool capacity, and twin 20 watt stereo amplifiers. It is a gorgeous looking machine, finished in black, with white lettering on all the controls. Weight is 24.5 lbs. The quality of construction is excellent, being built on a cast aluminum chassis with thermoplastic front and back covers. It is a very solidly built machine, but not quite up to the tank-like all metal structure and superb finish of the Elmo GS1200. But the GS weighs a hernia-inducing 35 lbs!

The Eumig S938 Stereo projector is the successor to the Eumig 926 GL Stereo and shares much of the mechanical and electronic features of the 926GL. The 926GL is an otherwise excellent projector (with a superb sound system) marred by a terribly ill- conceived coaxial reel system. For whatever reason (perhaps for TV type projectors), Eumig designed their early 900 series machines with two coaxial reels on the rear of the projector, so the film had to go through a rather tortuous twisted film path before reaching the film gate. Added to that they also eliminated the top feed sprocket and replaced it with a tiny flapping isolation roller. While this sytem transported the film reasonably satisfactorily, it resulted in a jerking motion on the film supply spool and a distracting noisy thrashing of the long film length preceding the first feed roller. It also made loading and unloading the film a bit of a pain.
This problem has fortunately been rectified in the 938/940 where Eumig reverted to the traditional in-line reel system with top and bottom sprockets. Indeed the film handling of the 938 (and later 940) is now superb. The film auto-threading works faultlessly every time, and the running of the film is very quiet indeed, just a steady purr. Eumig also increased the spool capacity to 800ft and upgraded the lighting to 15v 150 watts. In order to utilize the higher wattage lamp, an additional small internal fan has been added specifically for lamp cooling.
The 938 lens is an f1.3 14-30mm incorporating Eumig's exclusive optical leveling system, which enables large vertical displacement of the projected image without having to tilt the projector. This feature has recently been adopted by Panasonic and Sanyo on their home theater video projectors where it has been renamed ‘ lens shift’. It is interesting to note that Eumig had this modern ,now hyped, feature 25 years ago! Anyway it works very well and you kind of miss it on projectors that don’t have it. Unfortunately this 1.3 lens is slow by modern standards and the projected image could be sharper, although the field is very flat. When I use my 938 I put in a much better quality f1.0 lens which moves the optical performance of this projector much closer to the 200 watt Elmo GS1200 in terms of screen brightness and image quality. Here is my own 938 fitted with the superb quality Kodak Ektar f1.0 22mm fixed focal length (non-zoom) lens, and ready for CinemaScope with the ISCO scope lens.

The big thing about the 938 (and also the 926) is the outboard sound console. This stunning looking panel has no less than 16 separate controls for recording, mixing, and playback of mono or stereo sound tracks. The recording and playback volume and mixing controls are all beautifully smooth linear potentiometer slides which are much easier to control than rotary knobs. It is equipped with two really beautiful illuminated moving coil analog recording meters, and a separate set of LED lights for each sound control. There is a green power-on light and an illuminated console panel light. In addition there are yellow LED's for each of the operating modes, a red signal lamp for recording mode, and yellow signal lamp for the mixing control. When you are recording, the 938 lights up like a Christmas tree! Because of this , sound recording on the 938 is a snap- much more convenient than on the Elmo’s where the sound controls are awkwardly located on the back wall of the projector chassis.
The stereo amplifier board contains no less than 44 transistors, 74 diodes, 7 operation amplifiers, 7 IC’s, and 2 integrated output stages. This huge board is mounted in its own separate housing which also forms the base of the projector and the control console. This is a much better arrangement than on say the Elmo GS1200 where the electronics are strung around the projector on multiple PWB’s which all have to be connected through wire harnesses. So the internal layout of the 938 is very neat and clean, making access and servicing very easy. The base of the projector has horizontal and vertical levelling adjustments. There is also an 'inching' knob on the back of the projector, and mounting holes in the front for a daylight viewer or 'scope' lens mount.
The mechanical functions are contolled by a single rotary knob for threading, forward with sound, forward without sound, reverse, and rewind. Power rewind is leisurely and therefore gentle on your films. The forward without sound function totally removes pressure from the sound heads, thus eliminating sound head wear when running silent films- a very nice feature!
Speed is continuously variable from 17 to 25 fps , contolled mechanically by a rotary knob. This is a very precision control, utilizing a ball on disc drive (vastly improved from the earlier Eumig 800 series) which is very light and smooth indeed. I have found this speed control is so precise that it makes re-dubbing of sound tracks from DVD video relatively easy. Of course it’s not pulse-sync, but for a mechanical speed control it’s probably about as good as you can get.
The gate is a hinged type which is only accessible by first removing the front cover. You can’t pull the gate out, so the best method of cleaning is with long cotton swab's and aero-duster. The sound head pressure pads are totally removable by turning a little red knob. This leaves the sound head totally accessible for easy cleaning . There is a mechanical counter which counts once every second at 18fps.
On the back of the machine are the usual recording/microphone input sockets, amplifier out, left and right external speaker sockets, and an earphone socket.
Sound recording and playback quality is truly spectacular. There is absolutely no trace of WOW , which cannot always be said of the Elmo GS1200. Playing back re-recorded stereo is stunning, with a quality which is indistinguishable from VHS HI-FI tracks. I have two Elmo GS1200’s and there is no doubt in my mind that the 938 sound quality is superior. Frequency response is 40 to 11,000hz at 18 fps, better of course at 24fps, and signal to noise ratio is better than 50db. The control console enables you to switch from track 1, track 2, 1+2 mono, or 1+2 stereo. You can also directly record track 1 on track 2, or vice-versa, and you can play back with track 1 controlling the volume on track 2 or vice-versa. There is also a PA function, and an auto-start socket on the back of the machine, which permits a frame synchronised flying start of an external sound source such as tape player or DVD. So the recording options are amazing- again superior to the GS1200.
So what do we have here in the Eumig S938 stereo? Well we have a gorgeous looking machine with the best stereo sound quality that I have yet heard on super 8. This projector will never scratch a frame of your film and it threads unfailingly and runs very smoothly. The 150 watt lamp is brighter than the ubiquitous 12v 100 watt lamp, but noticeably dimmer than the 200 watt GS1200. The supplied lens is mediocre, if you are serious about using this projector find a top quality f1.0 fixed or zoom lens and you will be in the big league with sharpness as good or better than the GS, but still a little dimmer. The recording capabilities, and ease of use, are better than the GS1200. The spool capacity is 800ft not 1200ft as on the GS 1200.
To summarize, Eumig got it all right on this one , producing a superb projector which beats the GS1200 in some very important areas, but does not quite come up to the superb brightness of the GS1200, and of course it only has 800ft spool capacity. But it is the perfect machine for home (as opposed to hall) use. A joy to use and operate, and stunning to look at.

[ June 15, 2019, 12:31 PM: Message edited by: Paul Adsett ]

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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