The Chinon 7500 resurrection

[Maurice Leakey]

.....Check out Eivind Mork's video of the Q&A with Ged Jones.....

Ed,
Can you please give us a link to the video.

[Ed Gordon]

Maurice, Eivind's video is at: https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/vbb/f...blackpool-2022.

[Maurice Leakey]

Thank you, Ed.
Regrettably, Ged's memory couldn't recall the model of the Chinon, was he perhaps confusing it with the (dreaded) Cinerex which he also mentioned?

[Dominique De Bast]

Thank you, Ed.
Regrettably, Ged's memory couldn't recall the model of the Chinon

Based on a former discussion on the forum, it seems it's the Chinon 330.

8mm Forum: Chinon projectors opinion. (film-tech.com)

[Ed Gordon]

Ged said that is was a Chinon projector, not all Chinons, but a specific model of Chinon. In order to borrow a film users had to complete a form which asked for the specific projector make and model they would be using to run the film. They were able to identify a specific Chinon model that was damaging their films. Ged misspoke and said Cinerex and then corrected himself and said, "not Cinerex, but Chinon. A specific model of Chinon" that he could not recall.

[Dominique De Bast]

A specific model of Chinon" that he could not recall.

Here is the message I read :

"When Derann ran a film library, they stopped renting films to owners of the Chinnon 330 as films were being returned badly scratched. Chinnon commented on this in Movie Maker magazine at the time, stating that the problem was not with their projectors, but with the films being run through them!

They explained that the gate in the 330 was made to very high tolerances but was not side sprung, so provided the film run through it was split to equally high tolerances there shouldn't be a problem. The problem with commercially produced package movies was that their width varied, albeit by a fraction of a milimeter, but when the film was wider than the gate it would bow and then become scratched.

Camera Film was split to much higher tolerances and didn't become scratched, just package movies..." (Mike Peckham)

8mm Forum: Chinon projectors opinion. (film-tech.com)

[Ed Gordon]

Dominique, that seems to confirm it was the Chinon 330. Here is a transcript of the portion of the Q&A in which Ged talks about the Chinon.

[Lee Mannering]

Well the long life Xenon gas filled lamp arrived but not had time to carry out tests but will report back. It's nearly time to start dubbing Dorun's new releases again oh heck as the late Jimmy Clitheroe would have said.

[Osi Osgood]

They apparently got better then, as my Chinon 9500 projectors are quite good, lovely sound, but, like the ELMO, need a good deal of maintenance.

[Lee Mannering]

Well the long life Xenon gas filled lamp arrived but not had time to carry out tests but will report back. It's nearly time to start dubbing Dorun's new releases again oh heck as the late Jimmy Clitheroe would have said.

[Lee Mannering]

Right o. Tested the new Xenon Gas filled 500 hour lamp against the trusty regular Osram lamps.

New Xenon lamp works fine. I would say its very slightly yellow qnd the light output is a fraction less than a regular Osram lamp.

But the regular lamps do not give as even screen illumination as the 500 hour lamp.

I metered the whole projected frame and the Xenon lamp coverage is very even corner to corner, whereas the hallogen suffered fall off.

I guess you pay your money and you take a choice.

[Brian Harrington]

Making good progress.
...

3/ Aerosol of Silicone spray and using cotton buds carefully spray a little onto the bud and coat the plastic guides. This dries pretty quick but I tend to leave overnight to be sure. This will help protect your precious films from scratching and will cleaning your films with FILM GUARD, the two processes make a very good double whammy of S8 protection.

...

4/ As with Eumig projectors cleaning the magnetic sound head used to be a problem, but not today Yay!
Buy a new VHS head cleaning cassette perhaps off ebay and take take the cassette apart removing the white tape.
Carefully draw a light pencil line down it 8mm wide and cut down the length, you should just about get two strips out.
Cut it into 2FT lengths. Using some leader S8 film splice the 8mm white head cleaning tape together...1 length.

5/ With the Chinon or Eumig idle/off manually feed the film leader into the sound head and towards the main drive sprocket. Lower the plastic guide so you can pull the leader past it.
Put a few drops of sound head cleaner on the VHS head cleaner tape and engage the sound head turning the main control knob as if projecting a sound film. Slowly pull the film back and forth and this will remove any Oxide off your sound head and closed head guides.

Don't know if Lee is still on here, but questions to anyone who may know.

for 3/ I assume the gate and pressure pad should not have silicone put on it, correct? Nor anywhere around the rollers or sound head? I think I read that somewhere here or on the older version of the forum. Avoding the gate area seems counter-intuitive, though, since wouldn't that have a similar effect as lubing the film? The pressure pad is plastic, but the gate is metal.

4/ and 5/ are not necessary since I discovered there is a metal lever you can push down below but to the right of the head assembly that lowers it and gives complete access to the sound heads! It is behind the front panel around where you see the "aux mic" input. Before I discovered that I struggled to get a q-tip in there soaked with alcohol to clean it! The user manual doesn't even show you that, for some reason.