HISTORY:
My "world" is 'the arts' and more specifically, music, artwork and hand crafted/decorated chinaware's.
I am not a film enthusiast but an associate has asked me to find new owners for THEIR large collection of photographic and film items ... this is one of those items.
While the world of 8mm/Super 8mm is not my area of expertise, I am learning fast! and my training in electronics helps too!
If ELMO doesn't excite you, please keep an eye HERE for the EUMIG, ROLLEI and other projectors I now have PLUS masses of film stock covering the period 1930's ~ 1980's
I always try to be extremely detailed in my descriptions and provide as much information as possible regarding the items I am offering, so here we go ...
ELMO - Super 8mm Film Projector
Made in Japan
Circa 1978
Made in Japan
Australian market model: 240V AC operation
Film format: Super 8 ONLY
Sound capable (external speaker)
Special sound mixing facilities built into the projector
Built in leader cutter
18 - 24fps selection switch
Lens: Elmo Super Zoom f:1.3 F:15-25 mm
MAXIMUM reel size: 265mm (either supply or take-up)
I am offering the COMPLETE kit, not just the basic projector:
ELMO ST-1200D Projection system
ELMO carry case
ELMO accessory pack, which includes the cleaning brushes, small reel of test film and the very cool looking Electret "stick" microphone
Power lead (Australian standard, earthed)
ELMO 265mm diameter (large) White take-up reel - genuine ELMO product
ELMO User Manual (original)
SPECIAL NOTE: The manual confuses me a bit, the projector is marked as a ST1200D but the manual refers to the ST1200HD - perhaps the same manual for both machines, I really have no idea
COSMETIC CONDITION:
I know from my associate that this equipment was kept in a cool, dry place in their "projection area" and a visual inspection confirms the condition is very good.
The carry case has no tears, no corner splits and the locks are shiny (not corroded!)
SPECIAL NOTE: I love this case! It has that faux leather look but is vinyl based with all sides using stitching. It looks great and feels solid, it gives a great "first impression" of the equipment even before opening the case.
The accessories all look very clean, as is the outer carry box (faux leather which is actually vinyl)
The spare takeup reel is clean and NOT warped.
Funny thing about this reel, on one side it is clearly marked ELMO NAGOYA JAPAN but the other side has stamped into the reel MADE IN GERMANY
Projector case is undamaged and very clean, barely any marks at all!
Instruction manual has a couple of edge "chew" marks but this is ONLY on the front, the internal pages do not have this damage.
Visually, this projector looks really nice ... now lets see how it performs
TESTING:
Now I am a novice to the world of Super 8 so I had a steep learning curve, for example I soon learned that the shape of the cut on the leader is extremely important, in fact critical! If it isn't the nice "half moon" shape, the film will not auto feed properly!
So, I used the built in cutter and made sure I had a nice shaped leader and fed in the film ... no problems at all, eventually coming out at the take up side. I discovered it is VITAL to push down the Green tab at the top (near where the film is fed in) otherwise the film will NOT feed properly! It is mentioned in the User manual but I missed that part. Once I had become used to doing that, all was good.
NOTE: The manual indicates that once pushed down, this Green tab will stay down until the film is fed out through the 2nd sprocket - IT DOESN'T STAY DOWN! Keep it pushed down manually until the film is correctly and completely finished feeding out to the take up reel
My impression, after testing the other projectors I have been given to find new homes for, is that the film feeding system is a bit "touchy" - I didn't have anywhere near the same issues with the EUMIG S934 or the ROLLEI
My first test film was a Black & White silent film, no sound stripe - I wanted to see the film first!
Turn the large knob for forward play and away she goes ..... that nice clean click click click as the film runs through the path - no funny or bad sounds, NO film transport problems.
I wasn't expected such a small picture on the projector screen, I am too used to large screen television! But once I had my distances sorted out, all was well. Focus was fine and I could achieve a nice sharp picture at distance.
The picture was stable (not gittery) and I was able to re-frame it as necessary using the front control.
Light level was acceptable, not dim but not extremely bright either. The projector actually has two lamp settings for brightness built in.
Since first testing this projector, I found a number of NEW spare lamps (15V 150W) and fitted a new lamp - the original lamp fitted didn't look in great shape and it actually died after 5 minutes playback. So ALL of the films I have been playing through this projector are using this NEW lamp (OSRAM XENOPHOT HLX Type: 64634 EFR 15V 150W)
I changed the film for a Super 8 commercial film (Waltons) with sound, used the ELMO external speaker I have advertised separately HERE and played the film. I heard the audio without any problems with respect to the film soundtrack.
The internal loudspeaker fitted to the rear of the case is also working fine although I don't like the contact arrangement at all, but the contacts are clean and no issues with the internal loudspeaker.
I do notice however that there is 50Hz hum, too much of it quite frankly! The sound produced by the amplifier is ok but the hum also comes along for the ride but at a low level! Annoying.
I plugged in the microphone and made sure that worked too - it does!
I then took the back off to look at the overall condition of the mechanical side and look more closely at the amplifier board. It uses a hybrid audio amplifier IC, I think it was a Sanken 1010. I looked at the ripple voltage across the main amplifier power supply electrolytic capacitor and there is far too much ripple! That capacitor (at least) needs changing. Old electrolytic capacitors (particularly Asian) "dry up" after so many years and fail to function properly, the part is nothing special and easy to source and replace (not a difficult place to work on the board)
The belt(s) look fine and feel good, not spongy or stretched.
Next I noticed (not surprised really) that ALL the grease on the various wheels/cogs/gears is old and gone quite sticky - like all machines of this vintage, this needs a "lube job" and I also would bet that it will run very very nicely once this is done. It is not bad now but all that old grease is substantially increasing the torque required to get things moving inside - a fresh dose of grease will make life much easier for the machine.
Nice rear layout, easy to see what everything does.
So in summary, the servicing required relates to age not abuse!
The projector works fine but ...
It would be a good idea to have the amplifier power supply filter capacitor replaced and give it a decent ALL of the gears an all-over lube job and this will once again be one very fine projector.
This series of ELMO's are pretty highly reqarded as being generally reliable and well built
HERE is a forum discussing exactly this issue
To maintain the current condition of some items, I have now sealed the spare take-up reel, instruction manual and accessory pack in sealed plastic packs.
