Bauer T170 Sound projector

[Paul Deitch]

Hi everyone I am the family historian/researcher (www.tlp4u.info) and have been given some family Super8 films both private and commercial and a Bauer T170 Sound projector.
The projector is filthy, the bulb blown, the bulb cable has lost the insulation, the drive belt is loose and maybe some other undiscovered faults too.

Question is should I persevere with it to get it into running order or is it not worth doing and I should buy a better projector? If I should persevere, is there a service manual for this unit somewhere? I can only find a user manual.
I plan to setup something to digitise the private films as I am a computer hobbiest/photographer with a workshop.

Over the last 13 years I have scanned over 50k slides, negs., prints and documents for the extended family, digitised about 40 hours of family VHS and Video 2000 tapes and about 30 hours of family audio tape on cassette and reel-to-reel. It's been an interesting journey and I am now on the last stage. After that I need to organise everything better.
So thanks for any useful info.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Hi!

The Bauer T170 isn’t a bad projector, but it’s not among the „Top 10“. Depending on the amount of films, I would propose to simply send them to one of the many German telecine services that can transfer them to video in 4K and that does some digital restauration (scratch removal, color correction, image stabilization, …) on the video.

[Maurice Leakey]

The Bauer T170 was made by Silma and is not an ideal design in my opinion as it doesn't have a top sprocket.
The film is pulled into the projector by its claw.
super 8 database, bauer t 170 sound (filmkorn.org)

[Joseph Banfield]

In addition to what Maurice said, it is also full of brittle plastic parts, especially the framer control which often breaks. The belt is also a nightmare to change, to say the least! Personally I would search for a better machine.

[Paul Deitch]

OK. Thanks for the feedback. I found out the hard way how difficult it is to change the belt on that machine. My experience of companies doing the job of digitalisation has not been that good. I need to slow the film down because of very short clips, colour correct and edit them. That meant I had to convert the MP4 to AVI format, edit and then recode. The price for supplying the data in AVI format was extremely high.

Looks like I need an alternative projector then.
So my question is now where are the top 10 most suitable for digitising listed? And again, thanks for the feedback.
Actually I have another question. Which is the best thread here to read about DIY digitising?

[Winbert Hutahaean]

Looks like I need an alternative projector then.
So my question is now where are the top 10 most suitable for digitising listed? And again, thanks for the feedback.
Actually I have another question. Which is the best thread here to read about DIY digitising?

I heard many people use Sankyo 1000 or 2000 with the built in capability to slow down the motor.

Btw we have here a dedicated forum for your very question. Find the sub forum "Film to Digital Conversion" in this link:

https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/vbb/f...tal-conversion

Cheers,
winbert

[Paul Deitch]

Brilliant. Thanks again. There's a gold mine of info there. Progress will be slow but I will contribute my results eventually...

[Maurice Leakey]

Paul
As previously mentioned the Sankyp 2000H is widely recommended with its two sets of variable speeds, and uses the easily obtainable, and cheap, lamp.
super 8 database, projectors sankyo (filmkorn.org)

[Joerg Polzfusz]

My experience of companies doing the job of digitalisation has not been that good. … That meant I had to convert the MP4 …

There are companies that don’t return an MP4-file, but a sequence of TIFF-Images or DPX-, or ProRes-files or … . E.g. https://www.screenshot-berlin.de/preise/ or https://www.andecfilm.de/super-8-8mm...er-8-8-mm.html

[Joerg Polzfusz]

BTW: When going the DIY route, you might want to take a look at this provider for DIY kits:
https://www.film-digital.com

[Paul Deitch]

Yea! New belt, new cables made up, and LED bulb and it "works".
Another question. The feed reel seems to run loose and quite a bit of film loops out until the projector catches up. Then the film is tugged and another loop comes out. Looks like it could end up causing problems.
Is there some kind of friction device that can be adjusted? I can't see one.

The audio output still works. The lens is broken but as I plan to shoot into the gate if possible I hope that it will not be an issue.

Next stage is to find/make a light diffuser.

[Paul Deitch]

And I bought some diffuser material yesterday.!