Patrick Cooper Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 I have conversed with several people who have bought 35mm movie projectors for around AU$400 - $500 which seems like a damn good deal for such equipment. Though I don't know any specific details about what the particular projectors they have or the performance. For a long time, I have been attracted to the idea of buying an old but compact 35mm cine projector for a similar price and buying commerically made prints (cartoons, trailers and hopefully even a feature or two) to project. Though one guy who has operated theatrical motion picture equipment for a long time claims that all the old 35mm projectors in that price range are very rough and have poor picture steadiness. Is this generally true? Is there such a thing as a compact 35mm projector that has good picture steadiness for around AU$400? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathan snyder Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 Hi Patrick, I don't have alot of experience with 35mm projectors but here is what I know: I bought a projector almost a year ago. I paid around $400US for it and it cost that much to ship it to me. The make and model of the projector is a DeVryXD2000. It was model often used in theaters (as I understand it). However, it was not out of a theater. I bought this particular projector because dual sound mechanical interlock projector modified by Kodak ( I belieive) to be used to playback dailies wit the mag track in sync. I bring that up because this feature might have inflated the price, because it is a little more rare, but may have lso decreased the price because there are fewer collectors, or users for it. Here are a few photos of the projector: http://owyheesound.com/cinema_theater/cinema_theater.html The top three pictures are the ones of the projector I am taliking about. Also, when I got the projector it was practically siezed up. I had to disassemble most of the moveing parts and soke them in solvent and then put it all back together and lube everything. Only a few parts had to be replaced but it did require service to run, and a serious just to put film into it. Now it runs fine, even good, but it took some work. I have seen some new chinese portable projectors for auction on ebay. They are listed by kineman and sell for around $1000US It might be a good deal bcause they come with the lamp housing and the ballast for a xenon globe. I think old projectors out of theaters can be good but they may need alot of work. Oh, and don't forget you will need around 5 or 6 intermissions if you get only one projector because of the number of reel changes, unless you get a platter system to, but that would not be portable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Hal Smith Posted March 8, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted March 8, 2007 I have conversed with several people who have bought 35mm movie projectors for around AU$400 - $500 which seems like a damn good deal for such equipment. ................. I bought a Simplex SP portable for $350, it's pretty heavy but one person can manhandle it. I had to replace the windows and seals on the intermittant gearbox oil level windows (mini-Maglight lenses and standard, hardware store o-rings worked) and make up a simple adapter to drive a high-impedance mike input on a power amplifier from the sound track photocell in the projector. It run pretty steady and quiet, good enough for dailies and the occasional feature or cartoon. It's got a 1000 watt incandescent bulb in its lamp housing, I plan on adapting the back end of a Source Four to it, a 750 watt S4 will put out about twice the light and half the heat as an older 1000 watt bulb with a simple reflector. If you just need a simple, silent projector the older "1919 patent" suitcase DeVry's can be had for less than $150, I bought an absolutely mint one for $90 off eBay. It was a project to figure out replacements for the original round cloth belts but I found some that work from McMaster-Carr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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