HIGH INTENSITY DISCHARGE Bolex/Eumig sound projector lamp conversion

[Lee Mannering]

Take your time Brian

Interesting bit of fun and I'm pleased to report I'm to give a late night show of Dracula with the HID superlux in a week or so. Photos will follow once completed.

It was worth fitting the extra fan on the Eumig increasing the air draw thru the fitted cooling.

More later.

[Lee Mannering]

Well here is the finished article




I must admit it turned out quite a tidy job all round and of course a good improvement over the old 100 watt Dichroic lamps.

I'm going to pen something for Reel Image magazine about the conversion which will I am sure find a future issue, in the mean time thank you for the input and also the 1000 or so on and off this forum who have been following my progress. It has given me a great thrill to improve one of my Eumig projectors and rekindle memories seeing the Xenon 850 prototype a very long time ago with its extended fan cooled lamp house.

[Brian Fretwell]

Well done, Lee. Really worth the effort.

[John Burgess]

Well done Lee, really looks the business, I am sure you will be more than pleased with the light output.
regards John

[Paul Adsett]

What a superb looking projector modification! I can't wait to read Lee's article in Reel Image Magazine, but I wish Lee would also post some pics here so we can see his achievement in high definition pictures.

[Lee Mannering]

All will be revealed in time Paul, just a bit stuck for time at the moment.

Standard 8 specialist John was right, those STD 8 B&W films look really nice with the HID lamp. I ran Deranns GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN looked crisp.

By the way the extra lamp house fan is on permanently and a silent one. The projector switches on from the back as normal and I also fitted a on off switch to the Ballast supply so the lamp can be turned off to cool after use.
The Eumig 800's do not need a dowser fitting as you can manually turn the shutter simply by turning the black inching knob on the back to block the light to gate with one of the large shutter blades.

[Paul Adsett]

All will be revealed in time Paul, just a bit stuck for time at the moment.

Certainly looking forward to that Lee. I have a lot of questions but will hold back until you have disclosed more pics etc.
I must say that your Eumig 860 looks like it just rolled off the assembly line in Vienna. What a great job you have done.

[Lee Mannering]

Our first short break this year after lock in so took the 860 HID along for a outdoor show in a farmers field with a number of others and plenty of social distancing. 6ft screen probably about 20ft away and the Eumig in full steam.
Projected some cartoons for the youngsters who were not familiar with Popeye and always love those cartoons, Mickey etc followed by Carry on Camping as you do. For the late show a couple of spooky films Dracula and Taste the Blood of Dracula 400ft. No issues with the Eumig 810D I built the upgrade around at present and I'm quite happy with it.

Sound wise you can as I mentioned years ago tweak the small coils near the sound head block to virtually reduce any hum to zero as I've done with this machine. When they left the factory the techs didn't always get it right probably due to production speed needed. You'll need the projector switched in sound projection mode and no film loaded when doing the tweak.

All in all then a happy campers and a report will appear in a forth coming REEL IMAGE MAGAZINE magazine.
Don't forget to register for your free sample copy https://thereelimage.jimdofree.com/

[Lee Mannering]

OOH this has had lots of views and not just our tent :-) Anyhow a few requests for a video of the Eumig ultra compact dual gauge HID so I pulled the 1976 A NEW HOPE TRAILER from the vault to make a short video clip of it running. It's currently uploading and will probably complete in an hour.

https://youtu.be/yfvOzPGxpXA

Since finishing it I have made a few adjustments and I believe its now running at its optimum also replacing the amplifier capacitors with results pretty evident at least to my ears.
Enjoy the fun clip.

[Paul Adsett]

Very impressive Lee, the light on the screen appears to be very bright and white. How large a screen do you reckon you can now use?

[John Armer]

Thanks for sharing Lee, your projector looks like it might have just rolled off the production line in Neudorf. Very impressive.

[Dominique De Bast]

Waw !

[Lee Mannering]

Thank you all its was a fun project to do and performs very well.
Looking back to when I used to project with the Elmo Xenon GS1200 and the sheer weight of it carrying it up and down steps for local film festivals I wished we had the HID then it sure is a great deal lighter. Amazing really to think the humble Eumig can put out such illumination and project both 8mm sound film gauges ta boot.
I do still go out projecting films I've made over the years so this will see quite a bit of use.

Th 6ft screen we put up in the farmers field camp site was no problem for the 860 and since then we have used the home 8ft screen also bright. I would go so far as to say we could do with a dimmer switch!

The end of the project will be taking the projector into a real Cinema which is going to happen and I will probably film that as well, the screen I picked is 30ft a bit of a stretch so once facilities open further here we can see how that turns out.
As with all my kit I had this PAT tested for electrical safety with zero defects.

A Standard 8 film clip will be uploaded in a day or so as well but for now off to film the last few shots for my 21st century remake of The Lancashire Coast.

[Maurice Leakey]

Lee
Very, very, impressive. When are you accepting orders?
Seriously, you didn't show the other side. Is the ballast integral, or was there no room for it inside?

Maurice

[Lee Mannering]

Back from Lancashire coast filming it was very busy and a long time since I've seen people swimming in the sea.

A teeny bit tight for space inside Maurice and yes I've got a few local Eumig owners asking if I can do the conversation for them. End of the day it's just nice to see the versatile little Eumig get a bit of a lift.

Looking back and this will raise a smile when the uk cine film clubs had the annual film competitions projectors used were primarily Eumig. People used to like projecting own films so with 20 odd entries you had many Eumigs set up in a row. Some had reel to reel syncrodecks attacked, crests units Nagra you name it we had it it all. Golden memories and we had some fun.