8mm Forum: B&H Lumina MX60 – Mysterious missing image

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Topic: B&H Lumina MX60 – Mysterious missing image

Jay Knox
Junior
Posts: 3
From: Gaithersburg, MD
Registered: Apr 2013

posted April 29, 2013 10:22 AM

I recently bought a B&H MX60 on eBay ($54.00), which appears to work fine but shows only a flickering white light on the screen. Forward, reverse, auto-feed, and the lamp all work, but no image appears on the screen, not even a blur or any dark shapes – just a ragged patch of white light. I have tried several movies, which, by holding them up to a light, I can see have images on them. I don't know anything about projectors; I'm just trying to view old 8mm movies of my kids before having them digitized. I would very much appreciate any explanations or suggestions. Thanks.

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Jay Knox

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Janice Glesser
Film Goddess

Posts: 3468
From: Sunnyvale, CA USA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted April 29, 2013 03:48 PM

Jay...remove the face plate over the lens and the lamp housing. If your projector has a transparent cover over the takeup reel remove it first then remove the face plate. Without any film turn on the projector and lamp...see if the lens looks clear and check the brightness of the lamp. The lens could be dirty or cloudy from fungus and/or your bulb could be defective also. You should remove the lamp and with a small brush clean the gate opening front and back. You can also use an airspray can to remove dust particles.

Try these steps first and report back.

[ April 30, 2013, 12:53 AM: Message edited by: Janice Glesser ]

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Janice

"I'm having a very good day!"
Richard Dreyfuss - Let It Ride (1989).

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Jay Knox
Junior
Posts: 3
From: Gaithersburg, MD
Registered: Apr 2013

posted April 30, 2013 09:39 AM

Janice...Thanks for your help. As you suggested, I cleaned the film gate and the lens, and in the process I solved the mystery of the missing image: The lens assembly was not properly seated and therefore it was impossible to focus the lens, which resulted in the blurry image I was seeing.

I did find one other potential problem while fiddling around in the film-gate area. There is a small spring-loaded metal rectangle containing a very finely meshed window, which is positioned between the lamp and the film-gate. I think this may be a heat reducer which is supposed to snap into position when the projector is set to single frame, but it is permanently between the bulb and the gate, which must be cutting the bulb's brightness considerably. Do you think it's safe for me to remove this mesh assembly, as long as I never run the projector on single frame? Thanks again for your help.

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Jay Knox

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Janice Glesser
Film Goddess

Posts: 3468
From: Sunnyvale, CA USA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted April 30, 2013 10:23 AM

Are you sure the heat shield is stuck? The shield should move away from the gate light path when the gear is set to Forward or Reverse...otherwise it stays covering the opening. Check to see if this is happening on your machine. It could be just bent. If you have to...I don't see a problem in removing it. Just be careful not to use the still mode.

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Janice

"I'm having a very good day!"
Richard Dreyfuss - Let It Ride (1989).

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Jay Knox
Junior
Posts: 3
From: Gaithersburg, MD
Registered: Apr 2013

posted April 30, 2013 05:40 PM

With the cover off so I can observe, I see that switching to and away from single-frame causes a mechanism near the heat shield to move but the shield does not move. I'll try to reattach the shield to this mechanism. Thanks again.

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Jay Knox

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