What's your PET PEEVE regarding super 8?

[Brian Harrington]

Yes, it's probably mostly from the magnetic stripe, since what comes off on a Q-tip is usually brown. I do suspect some emulsion dust, too, however. After the gate, the most shows up under the second sprocket -- on the green guide notorious for scratching.

Eumigs rarely show much dust on the projected image, which lulls you into being remiss with cleaning the gate! But we know better!

[David Hardy]

Yes you really should clean the gate , aperture , film path , guide rollers and sprockets good and proper after every reel regardless of the brand of the projector or film gauge . This comment does not apply to those who know the reason why .

[Brian Harrington]

Or at least when you're done for the night showing films. With no audience, I agree about after every reel. One of the reasons that a 1200 foot reel no longer excites me with my Elmo is because that machine does require frequent cleaning and by the end of 1200 feet it's annoying what you can see on the screen in terms of dirt in the gate!

It's worth pointing out that regarding these pet peeves with projectors, practically none of them apply to my 16mm machines, which makes it even more of a peeve since technically these issues were not insurmountable. And neither of my 16mm machines are manual-threaders! My Elmo 16-CL is slot load, of course. My B&H-badged Eiki SNT is auto-thread. It's never once jammed in the quarter century I've owned it. Similar to my Chinon 7500 in that it threads silently since obstacles are moved out of the way in the film path.

In theory, Super 8 machines should have just been scaled-down 16mm machines, with the only change being magnetic heads instead of optical. My understanding is that is exactly what Fumeo did. My only machine which gives that vibe is my Elmo ST-1200HD, though to my knowledge it is not that similar to any Elmo 16mm model, though I've seen pics of 16mm Elmos with the green threading-setter.

[William Ferry]

One "fun" experience is trying to figure out where the fuzz IS, exactly! Being 65 and farsighted, I have gingerly poke a qtip or tiny bottle brush while the bulb is on. Only then do I find that because the lens reverses the image, the fuzz is in the OPPOSITE corner.😆😜😂

[David Hardy]

Brian my Fumeo 9119 Super 8mm projector is a magnetic / optical machine with mono single track stripe only with manual threading . Yes it is a scaled down 16mm projector . One of Fumeo's advertising hype slogans back in the day referred to them as ... " Tools Not Toys " . I fully agree with that slogan .

[Brian Harrington]

Too bad you can't buy them as new these days. People shell out the clams for a new $300 digest on a 400 foot reel, so I guess there would be people who would buy a new Fumeo. I think I would, since I could put to rest my other Super 8 machines for the rest of my life -- and the headaches that come with them. When I think of all the money I've shelled out for my machines over the years, a new Fumeo would turn out to be a bargain.

[Brian Fretwell]

When Phil at CHC tried to get a new Fumeo produced (an adatation of the tlecine machine they were stil manufacturing) there was not enough demand to go ahead. Very sad, as I had expressed an interest on one.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

The Fumeo was simply too expensive (2500 GBP in 2005 if I recall correctly) and its magnetic stereo sound was „playback only“ (=no recording sound head, no duoplay, …). There was also no support for sepmag sound…

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Back then, the 2500 GBP would have equaled approximately 3500 EUR or 4500 USD.

[David Hardy]

Brian Fretwell and Brian Harrington i too was one of those that registered an interest in a new Fumeo from Phil at CHC . Yes it is a pity it never went into production due to lack of demand . I do however have some spares for my Fumeo 9119 projector . I bought the last available magnetic soundhead and those white plastic soundhead guides and belts that were still available at that time in the UK . That was around twenty years ago i think .

[Brian Harrington]

The Fumeo was simply too expensive (2500 GBP in 2005 if I recall correctly) and its magnetic stereo sound was „playback only“ (=no recording sound head, no duoplay, …). There was also no support for sepmag sound…

I've recorded sound about 2 or 3 times, tops, in 50 years. I've never needed duoplay (I assume that means 2-track) either. I'm a simple guy.

I have no idea what sepmag sound is, but I'm sure I could survive without it.

Expensive, yes, but considering the money I've spent on multiple machines over the years, it's not that much and I'd have more storage space that said projectors are now taking up! Add in the frustrating hours of getting the machines to work, the aspirin (for the headaches), the Pepto Bismol and/or Alka-Seltzer (for the agita), and the scratches on precious films those Elmos caused...you get the picture.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

SepMag = separate magnetic = sync sound is coming from a separate device (for S8 normally a MC or reel-to-reel tape recorder, for 16mm also full-coat)

DuoPlay = you record the music
onto one track (in mono) and the comments onto the other track (also in mono). While recording, you don’t care about the volume of the music as a duoplay-capable projector will automatically reduce the music‘s volume when playing back a comment. When playing such a movie on a non-duoplay device, you’ll have problems to understand the comments as the music will be too loud.


The use of the recording feature depends on whether you are a film-maker (often) or a collector (normally only „rarely“ - unless you are willing to buy prints in foreign languages and then re-recording them in your language or in the original language).

[David Kilderry]

My Pet Peeve is colour fade. I bought many new cartoons and digests in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Most of these are now faded. The Seven Year Itch Digest was so vibrant when I bought it new, now it has faded, so has Star Wars, Jolson Story, Poseidon Adventure, Coffy etc etc. Super 8 had its boom period before the new low fade colour stocks came in in 1982 and there was never any Technicolor Dye Imbibition prints made on Super 8.

Many of these prints I have replaced with full length 16mm or 35mm low fade or IB Tech full length prints, but I still love the Super 8 box art so keep the Super 8 prints no matter how faded.

[Claus Harding]

From a shooting (and screening) perspective, it is a pity that the pulldown/gate design was never optimized for better stability, as Super-8, when shot with a good lens, is capable of quite impressive sharpness and detail for its size.
You can see the results of stabilization in the digital transfers made of film from high-end S-8 cameras; you gain quite a bit of info.
The Super-8 cartridges were a compromise at best, and they certainly could/can be a crapshoot in terms of how well the film rides through them.

The best projectors should all have had:
Rock-steady pull-down and registration
More powerful motors
Swing-out lens mounts for easy cleaning
Audio outputs that are true-voltage line-level, with RCA (not mini) connectors, really shielded and electrically clean, to take advantage of whatever the tracks can offer.
Skip the gimmicks and focus on the basics.

We got there with Fumeo, as noted, but Elmo got carried away with electronics in place of reliability. My old regular ST-1200HD chugs along. You can guess what sits in storage...

Claus

[Steve Klare]

It may make me seem old and crabby, but I'd say the cartridges I shot in my teens and early twenties were steadier!

("Kids these days don't KNOW what a good cartridge is!")