Home 9.5 9.5 Silent 16 Multi-gauge 17.5 28 Pix Miscellany
VARIOUS
SILENT 9.5MM MACHINES
In my indomitable pursuit of the chitterlings of projectors (inside bits to you), to serve the insatiable appetites of you lot.
Cinegel Silent
Did you ever have one of those days? There was I, innocently trying to run a bit of 9.5 I'd just checked, repaired and cleaned. I thought, "What a good opportunity to try out that little Cinegel". So I did; all well, quite a bright pic I thought from the 250v 300w A1/37, tho' the projection lens leaves a bit to be desired tho' of course nothing else will actually fit. Then a sudden clonk. Funny, I thought. Stopped (First Commandment) and checked. Projector turning over OK, concluded I had joggled the projector (I was tensioning the feed reel by hand). Tried again, OK for a moment or two then big clonk and projector stops.
Nothing for it now but to take it apart. Above are the projector, then a naked rear view with the lamp housing detached, then a close-up of the claw mechanism (which looks quite a bit like a Vox claw). What had happened was that part of the condenser lens, ie one of the two elements, and the spring separating them, had fallen out into the mech. They were supposed to be held in place by a circlip affair, ie a springy bit of wire in a ring bigger than the hole, squashed to fit and so grip. Clear? The circlip was still in place, it was just not doing its job. How or why I know not, but the missing bits were still able to fall out when I re-fitted them.
So, into my trusty gander bag to find something to replace it. Remember one should never throw anything away (Second Commandment) ? Well, I keep all sorts, and found an odd bit of spring wire that turned out to be just right when bent to shape. That was the easy part. When I put the machine back together, narrowly avoiding forgetting to re-fit the drive pulley and belt, came to put the lamp back in and it wouldn't fit. I'd put the back element of the condenser in the wrong way round and it was fouling the lamp. Open it all up again, re-fit lens, then spot that I had broken off one of the lamp wires in all my fiddling. Re-solder, struggle to re-align lamp. Other end of wire breaks off. When I finally get it all back together ready to test, I found that, this time, I had not managed to avoid missing off the main pulley and belt. By the time I finally got it all working, I was a bit peeved. Not one of my better days.
This is an entirely different kind of Cinegel silent 9.5, kindly donated by David Whistler.
The Eumig PIII is apparently quite a rare 9.5 machine. There have been rumours of a notched version, which would have been a great boon. Any sightings?. Bob Andrews loaned me a somewhat foxed copy of the instructions, which I have tarted up and reproduce below.
I've never really used a Gem in anger, so to speak, nor have I seen the instructions. So here as a compromise are the Instructions for a Mark VIII (and what an ugly machine it is), with 9.5 added as a footnote.
Compare
this to the original Gem, which has that amazing air of an Art Deco design out
of its time, even tho' The Dark Lord corrupted it and
made it into a Son (ugh!).
Here is the Rex I acquired in France; the Pathé logo on the lamphouse and the Rex badge on the front are about the only differences from the Eumigs. (See Eumig Super in Son (ugh!) of Gallery). More badge engineering. Also a couple of pages from the instructions - rest still in progress, and in French, but added here for John Collins who has just acquired the Eumig Super version.
Never seen one of these - it was stated to be a 9.5mm Emel, found on French ebay.
This is an 8mm Norris; I have the identical-looking 9.5 version, too. I found an original instruction leaflet, which I have tidied up for you. The shape of the motor looks early.
Keystone is a name I usually associate with 16mm, but this one appears to be 9.5.That dome presumably covers a pilot light.
Been playing about with a 9.5mm Campro camera/projector,
following a query about the power supply. I got the instructions from Warton
Parfitt (I know, I should have gotten them ages ago, but it's not the Boy Way).
From these I find that there are in fact two models of the Campro. The
presumably original model has a very basic lens with 3 stops only - bright, dull
but, as the third was is project, only two really. The later version has a
decent-looking lens. They were made by a company called Home Cine Cameras Ltd of
18 Gray's Inn Road in London.
I discover from the instructions that I have several parts
missing. There should apparently be a little gizmo that goes over the lens for
projection - I don't know, but guess this could be a supplementary lens. There
should also be a rewind handle and a two-pin plug to fit in the b
ack
of the projector to power the lamp. I decided to make up a little plug, on the
lines of a Pathé design - see pic right. I did actually try to run a film
through, but the picture was small and dim. This may of course be due to the
lack of the extra lens (if that's what it was) and the fact that I was not using
the "special" lamp originally provided. This was 6v 6w, but the recommended
dry-cell battery was 7.5v; maybe they relied on over-running it to get a
brighter light. I could perhaps try a halogen, but it's certainly not worth
bothering unless I can get my hands on a projection attachment.
I am very impressed by the Campro motor, which will handle at
least 30ft on a single wind, or so it claims. It winds nice and quiet - no
ratchet. Sa
dly,
however, the Campro is made of Mazac and the cover on mine has warped enough that it no
longer fits correctly. One could in principle use it tho', as it takes a 9.5
charger. There were several others similar machines; here is a pic from
Son (ugh) of Gallery that Trevor Adams sent me;
it shows the Screnus, the later-model Campro and the Midas.
Here is the machine in its two modes; as projector with 30 & 60ft cassettes and as camera with charger. Note that with a charger far more of the film gets exposed as a loop, than in other 9.5 cameras, hence presumably the stern injunction never to open the camera before a film is finished. The take-up spool core has a very prominent prong to grip a sprocket hole; care is needed not to rip the film when rewinding. The claw seems reluctant to engage easily and the instruction book does say to use the inching knob to start it. Seemed a bit tricky. It's fine once it's going tho'. There is a brass pin in the middle of the film compartment, immediately behind the lamp - it don't revolve with the mech and I'm not clear what it does.
Finally a picture from John Collins, who, much to my envy, has both models.
200B
Came across an interesting reference, in ACW for Dec 37, I think. It points out that, for a 200B using a blanking plate, a simple way to ensure the lamp
is switched off during rewinding is to get a spare blanking plate and remove the centre pin, covering up with insulating tape. I never thought of that. Perhaps
one could go further and make a new blanking plate substitute which would have a switch in it to connect or disconnect the lamp circuit...........
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