Thoughts on the DeJur Metropolitan 707? Also anyone have a manual?

[John Roberson]

Like the title says. I'm just looking for everyone's thoughts on the Metropolitan 707, and looking for a manual for it. Thanks!

[Ed Gordon]

Like the title says. I'm just looking for everyone's thoughts on the Metropolitan 707, and looking for a manual for it. Thanks!

John, there is one for sale on ebay for $29: https://www.ebay.com/itm/312833665478

It is a working projector, and it might come with a manual!

[Maurice Leakey]

John
I know this is not the model you mention but it looks very similar so I thought you might be interested.
VINTAGE 1958 DEJUR ELDORADO P-660Z 8MM PROJECTOR OPERATING MANUAL + MORE | eBay

[Steve Klare]

Something I love about old machines like this it how simple and indestructable they are: you can find one in an attic somewhere, give it some cleaning and some minor attention and very often before long it will work like the day it was built: it's just too simple not to.

Something I'm wary of is the lamps they use. You run into many of them that the lamp hasn't been made in decades and unless you convert it to something more modern, it's basically a piece of sculpture as far as film viewing goes. The lamps you may find are usually new-old stock and the rarer they are the higher the price.

This one doesn't seem anywhere as desperate as all that, but even though my favorite place to buy lamps has 180 in stock:

DCH/DJA/DFP 120V 150W

-they are $60 for a lamp rated for a 15 hour run time. The problem is the prices seem to go up from here.

More modern machines use lamps you can get for under $10 and give 50 Hours average lifetime. What saves the day in these cases is these are used in pretty common modern-day applications and are still being mass produced.

[Phil Moors]

Steve, I never realised that any projector bulbs had such a low run time. It’s lack of useable life would seem to make having a projector which uses them pointless.

[Brian Fretwell]

I remember that halogen doubled the most common lamp life from 25hrs to 50 hrs, but didn't know of any that were run hot enough to only last 15hrs. I wonder if that was to give a better colour temperature as well as being brighter.

[John Roberson]

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of follow up. I picked up a super cheap one near me. I'm just not sure quite how to operate it! I'm new to film in general.

[Steve Klare]

Hi John,

Since this E-Bay seller sells the belt for this machine, there's a decent chance you'll need to replace the one that's in there.

DEJUR 707 METROPOLITAN Projector Belt

-unless the the former owner was kind enough to do it for you. The belts do disintegrate even in storage, though.

In your position, maybe the best thing to do is find an 8mm film you hate, and by this I mean potentially sacrifice it to the greater good of learning how the machine works, in order to protect the films you don't hate. You need something cheap you'd be willing to shred as you travel your learning curve. I bought a sacrificial print with my first sound projector. It's slightly injured in a few places, but I still haven't killed it!

There are often many common commercial prints and even other people's home movies on E-bay. You'd be looking for Regular-8, Standard 8, -any "8" but Super-8 (not compatible) and Video 8 (ditto). The goal is to figure out how to mount, thread and run this poor victim, and then move on to irreplaceable footage.
.

(I pinched this picture off the 'net: I have no personal experience with this machine!)

.
To start, it looks like that takeup arm needs to be rotated up and locked in place. You can open up the film gate by gently pulling the lens outward and get in there and cleaning the gate area. This is for the good of the image and the films too. Be careful not to damage the perf claws inside there: they are tiny and potentially delicate.

To me this looks like an auto-threader. I'm guessing you'd use those rocker switches to put in in "START" and "FORW" (you can leave the lamp "OFF" until you are threaded up and ready) and then feed the leader into the chute that goes under that top sprocket. There may be a trimmer somewhere to cut the leader tip to the right shape. If all goes well it will come out of the bottom chute ready for the leader tip to be inserted into a slot on the takeup reel. (You should be mindful of the sprockets being on the same side as the sprocket teeth: it happens some times...)

Those top and bottom sprockets should be turning while this is happening, If they aren't, the best suspect is a broken belt.

You might luck out and find threading instructions on the inside of the cover: this was a pretty common thing. The average 1950s through 1980s projector manufacturer could teach the folks that make all the buttons black on a modern TV or audio amp a thing or two about user-friendliness!

The 15 hour lamp is a lot less of a headache on a machine like this than a sound machine. With sound comes larger reels and multiple reels and longer shows and that eats up 15 hours a lot faster than 200 and 400 foot silent reels a couple at a time would. Besides: the at least the lamp is available at all, sometimes they aren't and your cost per minute can go a lot higher than what you'd have now.

-best of luck!

[Barry Fritz]

I think Steve meant the Feed arm needs to be rotated up which is the top arm. I can't tell if the take-up arm needs to be moved out. Trim the end corners of the film so they are slightly rounded rather than squared off. A fingernail clipper works well for that.

[Steve Klare]

You are correct, Barry!

-there is no take up arm here in any case. (Never post very late at night or before second cup of coffee...)

The arm is covering up what I take to be "Automatic Threading" (or something like that...), so I'd say it is meant to rotate up out of the way.

While we are at it: Single-8 films will also not play on this machine.