Son of Gallery

SON (UGH!) OF PICTURE GALLERY

Far below Chateau Nerdistan, beneath even the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, lie the Projector Vaults (cue spooky music). Here lie the broken, the rusty, the incomplete, the surplus and the just plain I-haven't-got-round-to-it-yet. Yet among the dross glimmers the dim glow of desirability (to a certain kind of boy). Your intrepid explorer has penetrated deep into the bowels of these half-forgotten recesses to bring those that may yet prove worthy blinking, perhaps only briefly, into the light of day. Here then is another tiny fraction of the vast range of cine stuff that is the stuff of life to the collector.

First, tho, some news from New Zealand. Trevor Adams sends these pix of micro projectors using 9.5, plus Monaco, Imp, Princess and something I don't recognise, (he says it's a Gamages 16mm toy, probably by Friese of Peak fame. Now he tells me.), none of which I have, and a really off-the-wall S8 machine - probably a triumph of styling over function.

Trevor later sent some more pix, which I've only just got round to loading.

Left we have a tiny camera - see battery - then some more toyish ones, three camera-projectors and finally two shots of an amazing full-scale camjector.

Here are a Eumig E-80, two I don't know (the second might be a Dekko, but Trevor says it's a Coronet), an Ace, of course, and a Nizo Cinemator 8, which I thought very cute.

Now some Dekkos that really are Dekkos, two similar models that are 8mm and 9.5 versions, plus this rather fetching and quite different 9.5 machine. It has some serious flaws; a gate that doesn't open for cleaning, as per Pathé Kid, a 50v 25w lamp with a big resistance in the base to get down from 200/250 input, and weird spool nose arrangements whereby the spindle is just a plain rod, over which fits a thing just like a 9.5 rewind adapter which is driven by a belt and held on by a spring-loaded knob fitting on the end of the spindle. This means two loose bits per arm to lose, and belts outside the reel. Very odd.

The other two are a Bing and a Bingoscope.

The notorious Midas camera/projector. Some spare cassettes I have have stringy stuff round where it meets the casing - light-trap problems, maybe? It's quite ingenious in places. The second pic shows the rear viewfinder thing in its upright position (lowered in the first). Immediately below it is the lamp for projection; turning the viewfinder turns the lamp on and off. The basic idea goes back a long way, as the extract shows. Last is the Campro, of which I gather there was a second, later version as well. I also have in my possession 300' reel with Midas as part of its structure. Does this mean that there lurk even greater, undiscovered horrors in the shape of a hitherto unknown Super attachment for Midas masochists? Please tell me it isn't true!

More cameras, just to show I'm broad-minded. This H has speed variable from 10 to 32 fps; I think the other is a Dekko. Then we have a gorgeous and sexy black B&H which is threatening to oust the 606H from my affections - it's really stunning. The next is a Hunter - it seems most odd, tho' I don't think the spool arms are on wrong. Then a Norris 8; I'm sure I've got a 9.5 ditto somewhere. Finally a Ricoh Std 8 sound. Beyond that, I know nothing.

The first B&H is a really elegant-looking thing with the slim, tapered pedestal; the second is here for it's gorgeous box. Tho' I like the Kodatoy, and maybe the "B", most Kodak projectors don't do it for me. Is it the squareness with no mitigating Kodatoyness? The 8mm 50R has a back view, too, because of that odd drive arrangement. The Model 60 is, I think, missing something from the top of the lamphouse. The last one is a Model 45. Bored now.

This is more like it. An unusually-coloured Eumig P34(?), with all sorts of complicated twiddly bits - gorgeous. I've said elsewhere that Ampro kept the same basic mech from silent to sound; here is the proof. Then the cute little Kodatoy, with extension arms still in original box. Missing a crank handle tho' - making a replacement is on my list. Here is another I got recently. Someone has gone way OTT, fitting a base, with special coiling for the wire and an adjustable foot at the front and that cutesy shell lamp. But it has a motor and a handle, neither of which I had before, so the other can now go. Returning to the first Kodatoy, it is followed by another Eumig - a P3, I think; it's the relatively rare 9.5 machine. Two Kodak 16mm cameras. You can take films with them, so I hear.

I know I said I was bored with Kodaks, but as I was doing a bit of sorting out, I came across an original Kodascope C storage box. It's just a square steel box, leatherette covered, with a handle (missing on mine, but standard type). I acquired it years ago as it was in very good condition. It prompted me to sort out the three projectors I had lying around. Fortunately, one of them turned out to be a D. Although the two machines are very similar, there are a number of differences. The most important is the lamp; the C consumes 150w with a 100w lamp. The D uses 350w with, presumably, (not got one in mine) a 300w lamp. This in turn necessitates a proper fan with air ducted towards the lamphouse. The other changes are minor or cosmetic; the D has no rewind handle, power rewinding being provided. The outer skin of the lamphouse is a much more attractive perforated metal affair, rather than the nasty wire affair of the C, and is a nice bronze colour rather than Model T Ford black. This perforated pattern is extended to the motor speed control housing and a neat little cover over the top of the mech. In the C (well, mine, at least) the mech just open. It's only a 0.5in. slot between two steel plated that form the main frame. The speed control itself is a rheostat on the D; the C has what seems to be one of those carbon compression jobbies. The only other difference I've spotted is the threaded storage hole the D has for the lens. There are two different patterns of gate spring on my two C's; one is simply a loop of spring steel, the apparently later version, which is also on the D, uses an arm with a coil spring.

I have three different motors between three machines. One C has a Westinghouse, made in Springfield, showing signs of Mazac spalling. The other is from the North East Electric Co of Rochester. It has brushes at 90 degrees to each other rather than opposite; I can't recall ever seeing such a thing before. Sadly, one of the wires is broken off so far inside I can't fix it. The D has a Delco, again Rochester.

Also, I now have my own Kodascope A, which has been sympathetically refurbished and QI converted by Colin Loffler. I did have one some years ago, but it needed work so I sold it on to someone I thought more likely to do it. But they are fascinating things - great lots of gears inside.

The Luch(?) is a Russian Std 8 jobbie - the spool arms fold in and around so you can shut the front flap and have a square box. The spool spindles go into those two holes top R and bottom L. Then a B&H 624 Std 8 camera, with a Cima Std 8, whatever that was. Then some more from Terry Vacani - a Cinegel 220 for 9.5, another Eumig (a 9.5 Super?), a (9.5?) Sadar Handy and finally a Europ; it's a very elegant machine. I've just gotten another Cinegel, a basic but cute 400ft capacity job. Next to it is a Kodak Std 8 sound, then in the possession of Bob Andrews but now sold. The gorgeous Alef 9.5 is his, too. The last two pix are of a B&H 129.

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