Most horrible projectors of all time!

[Maurice Leakey]

Comments about film libraries banning their hire of films for certain projectors reminds me of Christmas 1946.

My father bought me a new Hunter 9.5mm from a Bristol cine dealer, however, when we decided to join their film library we were refused as the Hunter (Bingoscope) didn't have any sprockets.

I just bought the 30ft and 60ft Pathescope cartoons until we found a library who didn't even ask our make of projector.

R.F. Hunter 9.5mm film projector, UK 1930s 10.11.10 | Flickr

[Lee Mannering]

Nice memory Maurice.

I can only mention my late fathers attempt to hire 16mm films with his 17.5mm home talkie projector converted to 16mm in wartime in order to project public information films in Kent UK.
Later years the libraries wouldn't entertain it so he got a Bell & Howell.

On a personal note the Giocia Italian projectiles were awful and excellent items for door stops or composting

[Michael O’Regan]

I’ve never owned one but always fancied the look of the Heurtier machines. However, I have had bad reports in terms of their damage to film. Perhaps someone who has owned one can put me right or corroborate?

[Joseph Banfield]

Michael, I had a Heurtier p6-24 with its optional sound base that was a dual 8 machine. I had no problems with it damaging or scratching film.

But beware of this model because the sound seperation is set up to only play standard 8mm sound in sync, while Super 8 sound will have a second or so of delay!

[Douglas Meltzer]

Michael,

Heurtier made very good 9.5 projectors and I'm glad Joseph's P-6 worked well, however I have a Stereo 42 and I would never risk running any print through it that I even remotely cared about. It's a beautiful looking machine whose sole purpose in life is to lose loops and scratch films.

[Shane C. Collins]

For silent machines I am very fond of my Honeywell Elmo FP8-C. It's never eaten a film and caused scratches. It's a bit old in design but is well built with a halogen 150 watt lamp. My other favorite is the Bolex 18-5L Super.

[Paul Adsett]

Doug, I have often admired the beauty of the Heurtier Stereo projectors, but did'nt the Heurtier's have a couple of ruby beads in the film gate that were supposed to keep the film perfectly flat by pushing down on the center of the film? Sounds like a great way to induce scratches?

Maurice, were'nt the Pathescope Ace projectors banned for use by many of the UK libraries, also because of the sprocketless feed system?

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

Nantawat, you've just described the entire Eumig 800 series and later sound machines since none of those can be unthreaded midway!

From your list of requirements you are without a doubt referring to the early Eumig 700 sound machines, since they meet all those specs easily plus a lot more you didn't mention.

Sorry, but I couldn't resist a shameless plug for my favorite series of machines!

That's the part I completely failed to understand.
My super current projector (Minolta Sound 7000) although pretty fussy to unthread the film, at least it's still possible. Why on earth Eumig changed from relatively "open" film path where everything is accessible, to some sort of "mystery tunnel" where you can only pray for the film to get through unharmed. What if worst disaster did happen, and you have to unthread the film partway?

Several members mentioning "toy projectors". I remember having one in my attic (forgot the make/model, but some post-war Japanese made thing). I don't mind it being run on a bunch of D-size batteries but still sooooo dim & can't handle anything more than 50ft reel.
But I do mind that the film gate DOES NOT have any recess in the picture area, at all. So yes it will badly scratch any films outright in the first pass no matter what. That's why I've thrown it in the attic so it will never see any light of the day.

[Osi Osgood]

Good for door stops or composting ... Very funny, Lee!

[Janice Glesser]

I'm also going to put my hat in the ring for the Heurtier. I had one briefly a few years ago. It looks really cool, but I would never run film through it. I ended up stripping it for parts. A very bad mechanical design.

[Brian Fretwell]

I still have (somewhere) a silent projector from "Shopertunities" that used the same bulb as editors (or a motorcyle 10w one) battery/mains. It took six what were then called U2s (now D cells) 4 for the lamp 2 for the motor, no shutter and a gate that was completely flat, no recess or edge grip.

That one must be a contender for the worst.

[Joseph Banfield]

Well Nantawat, I am just thrilled to death you asked that question about how one goes about unthreading a Eumig sound machine. After the 709, Eumig gave users two brilliant, but fully undocumented, ways of unthreading in an emergency. Those ingenious options are as follows, so read carefully:


Option 1: SCISSORS!

Option 2: SCREWDRIVER to pull the heads, and most impotantly a prayer to ensure you don't break off any of the tiny wires as the sound head will be dangling from them like a dingleberry!


So you see, it can be done!


But I must say I have never had that scenario actually happen in real life. But then again I almost never use a 800 series machine with their hummy transistorized amps with hum-bucking coils that never fully eliminate the hum, new sloppy focus control, sound heads that can't easily be cleaned, no adjustable lower loop to eliminate film chatter in the sound, no adjustable lamp focusing, pressure pads forever clamping film whether running sound or silent film, no two-way speaker plug, no automatic threading lamps, no mid-film unthreading, risk of breaking off claw pin when cleaning or changing the gate if you forget to line up the dots at the inching knob!

Those above named problems are exactly why I use the earlier 700 series, which don't have any of those issues!