Vernon 101 8mm Viewer

[Mike Folso]

I recently bought a Vernon 8mm 101 viewer. The bulb lights but I get nothing on the screen. I tried adjusting the framing knob but still nothing.
Any suggestions??

[Chip Gelmini]

I don't know but I had a Vernon when I was quite young and it was a piece of trash. Later replaced by an Argus which I ---> still <--- have today! Perhaps you might wish to try again. Get something much better. How close are you to NYC? You could do some real homework and down right physical searches you might find a dealer or store who has some old gear hanging around. If you don't see it. ASK. If he doesn't have it ASK if he knows of other shops. You might get lucky with some deep down searching. Then, you could try it befote you buy it.

[Steve Klare]

Hi Mike,

Welcome! (Grew up in Garden City South, myself!)

Two things:

Quite often an old viewer lamp will have built up a dark coating of Tungsten on the inside of the lamp. This will keep the light inside the bulb itself.

Also: There is a shutter mechanism in there that blocks the light between each frame. It's operated by the passage of the film itself. It may not allow the screen to be lighted until you spin the sprocket either manually or with film.

[Brian Fretwell]

The viewers I have had have had rotating prisms ratger than shuuters so there is no dark time on the screen. I would think that is to give the brightest picture from a 10w lamp and to prevent flicker at very slow speeds when trying to find an edit point.

[Steve Klare]

I have a much later Vernon than the 101 (808 Deluxe) and it looks like there is some sort of shutter-wheel geared to the film sprocket such that every frame a shutter leaf passes very rapidly in front of the aperture and blacks it out entirely many times per rotation.

My point is if Mike's is set up like this and the shutter is closed when he first tries out the lamp, it will act exactly as he describes at the beginning of the thread.

-could be something else, but it's a good possibility to eliminate!

[Mike Folso]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I really think the problem here is the shutter not being opened. I am not sure how to get that going since I have tried passing film through the viewer and turned the frame adjustment knob. The bulb does not seem to be blackened.

[Steve Klare]

It is probably a simple mechanism that needs to be accessed, maybe cleaned up and freed to spin.

-unfortunately the “access” part can get tricky: things like this are sometimes unfriendly to being serviced.

A little patience and persistence often carries the day!

[Mike Folso]

I hope so. If not I will simply find another 8mm viewer