Should I buy a Kodak sound movie deck?

[Silas Buchanan]

It seems to be a convenient projector, as I can run sound super 8mm & 8mm films without switching projectors, as well as watching castle films & such at 24 frames per second instead of 18. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Steve Klare]

Hi Silas,

The Moviedeck is kind of a sentimental favorite of mine, since my very first movie projector was one. Between the ages of 17 and 40 it kept me in the motion-picture business. I found it really convenient and easy to use and it took part in some memorable shows.

-BUT-

A lot of Kodak consumer-level equipment from around that time has kind of a fatal flaw that is basically a ticking time-bomb: plastic gears that grow brittle with age. You may get this machine and get half a reel or maybe even fifty, but there is a gear integral to the shutter assembly that is prone to cracking and failing.

There is a company that fabricates a replacement shutter/gear and will install it or just sell you one, but getting tangled up in this is a roll of the dice when you buy one of these up in the neighborhood of 50 years old.

The same thing happened to my Dad's Kodak Carousel slide projector, the same people fixed it.

I had a really simple Kodak Super-8 camera I picked up for about 5 bucks the summer I met my wife. We shot maybe 5 cartridges before it too snapped a gear. It was like it had some kind of destiny! (Some of the footage ended up in our wedding video!)

[Janice Glesser]

In addition to Steve's comments,. Kodak Moviedecks unfortunately only play sound for super 8 mm film not standard 8.

[Steve Klare]

It's worth considering that the stresses on a machine capable of 24FPS operation will be a higher than one set up for 18 only.

It could become one of those situations where the seller tried it out for 30 seconds or a minute and it seemed just fine to sell. Then you set the thing up and it runs some reels just fine and a few weeks or even months later that crack spreads and the shutter falls apart. -basically: YOU "broke it"

I kind of "retired" my own because of this, still unbroken. I have a lot more capable machines to use, so I just kind of set it aside. Still, I kind of miss it, so I may make the shutter gear replacement kind of a preemptive "repair" and maybe give it some jobs here and there.

There is nothing nicer for viewing newly processed film: you plug it in and pull out the built-in daylight viewer, and you are watching that newly arrived film in less than a minute.

[Osi Osgood]

Answer? No, in my opinion. Hey, they are one of the coolest little projectors, lying on they're side like that, but even with Janice and others sending me diagrams and such, it was a severe pain in the arse to work on. 2. They are diligent little scratchers of film. 3. They can only take up to a 400ft reel of film. Save your money and buy a proper Eumig!😁

[Steve Klare]

Yes, something I've become a little wary of is the rewind scheme of these.

You can do a rewind where the film rides in a little channel on the back of the machine and climbs "upstairs" from the take-up reel to the supply: and I guess if you keep that clean and watch it for wear, it's OK

You can also do this thing where the rewind is backward through the regular transport path (-claw withdrawn...hopefully!). What's fun here is at least on the one I had, the lamp is on whenever the motor is running. -so you get to see your film backwards on-screen at blinding high speed!

Yes, the idea bothers me too, at least nowadays. I used it early on. what can I say? I was young, and this was years before my first speeding ticket, really awful girlfriend or flunked college course! (Too soon we grow old, too late we grow smart!)

-it never damaged any of my films, but obviously I had some wising-up to do!

An interesting wrinkle here is this is triggered automatically by the end of film being attached to the reel. Ever so often I find some old reel I haven't seen in decades and I find this anchorage! Somehow I doubt any of my other machines would receive this very kindly!

[Paul Adsett]

I agree with Osi . Don’t spend your money on this almost 100% plastic projector. Look for a good Eumig 800 series projector which are nearly 100% metal work horses.

[Joseph Banfield]

I would highly recommend the Kodak Movie Deck if you don't value your films and enjoy constant grief!