endless loop super8 projectors?

kevin jackman · December 18, 2010

can anybody tell me what super8 prjectors had the endless loop option? im thinking of an experiment that I might want to do so I might be looking for some.

Richard Tuohy · December 18, 2010

can anybody tell me what super8 prjectors had the endless loop option? im thinking of an experiment that I might want to do so I might be looking for some.

It depends what you mean. There were a few manufacturers of endless-looping cartridge projectors designed for traveling salesmen etc that took pre-loaded cartridges that would run endlessly. I have one of these, but have found that the instructions that came with it are quite correct when they say 'you must use polyesther based film in this unit'. Acetate it seems is not only not as hard waring as poly, but also just doesn't seem to transport reliably at all inside the cartridge. The idea with these was that a company would pay for a number of prints to be made (on poly) and have the cartridges loaded by the cartridge manufacturer. They weren't intended as a diy loadable thing.

There was a cartridge projector sold under the Technicolour lable. It might have been different in this respect, can't vouch for that.

But if you mean just running loops in a super 8 projector, well most can do that. The limitation there is loop length. If you want to do just a few feet, no worries. If its quite a few feet, then you need to string up some pullies around the room and loop the film through them in a big loop. But if you want to do a long bit of film (and by long here I mean more that say 50 or so feet) then it gets pretty hard as the extra weight of the film and friction from the rollers can be too much for the projector to pull and the claw will start slipping and all sorts of things.

hope that is of some help.

rt

Martin Baumgarten · December 18, 2010

ELMO made a 400ft (60m)capacity top mounting endless loop unit that had the film reel sit horizontally on top of most of their ST series Super 8mm projectors. These have shown a couple times over the past few years on eBay, but they are kind of rare. EUMIG also had a co-axle projector so the film didn't have to be rewound and thus could also be run endlessly; but, there were some problems regarding long term wear & tear due to cheapness of the main axle design. This could probably be remedied with repair if you located a non-working unit. However, my money is for locating the ELMO Endless Loop unit, which is a reliable mechanism, as most ELMO projector products are.

K Borowski · December 18, 2010

So there was a S8 platter system out there? I've seen them for 16, but never 8mm. Cool :-D

Martin Baumgarten · December 18, 2010

ADDENUM to my previous post: The unit for the ELMO projectors is the ELMO EF400 Continuous Loop Device and will fit on top of all ELMO ST and GS series projectors.

kevin jackman · December 19, 2010

hmmm sounds like my plan is way harder than expected, I thought it would be way easier than 16mm

Chris Millar · December 19, 2010

How long will your loop be ?

kevin jackman · December 19, 2010

time has not been set but Im thinking at aleast 50ft

Chris Millar · December 19, 2010

50ft, ok

hmmm - yeh, quite long to set up a rack and have it all hanging out there - still doable, but quite a spectacle ...

Andries Molenaar · December 20, 2010

can anybody tell me what super8 prjectors had the endless loop option? im thinking of an experiment that I might want to do so I might be looking for some.

Here you have the Noris Infinator add-on. It holds and runs maximum 30 meter of film.

It is fun but you need a durable and capable projector to fit it to.

Mark Dunn · December 20, 2010

I wonder if you couldn't drop 50' into a bin like the ones you'd use with a pic-sync- a big box lined with a sheet might do it.

paul gustavson · December 20, 2010

Hey there,

I have a Bolex Multimatic that may be the type of projector you are looking for. You can load up to six 50' reels in it at a time and it projects each reel, rewinds it and then automatically threads and starts projecting the next one in line. It is not an endless loop, but you can keep taking out the cartridges as they are done and putting them in the back of the line. The cassettes are kind of a pain in the ass to load, as the end of each film needs a small plastic clamp to be attached to it so that it will not get separated from the reel when it is done, and then the machine can rewind it back. Bizarre fun machine though for those psychedelic/peyote/strobe light parties every other day that I have by myself! Good luck

russell fowler · December 21, 2010

For short film length you can build a roller tree with rollers mounted on a pegboard. There are 16mm looper disks which sit horizontal with a plate on the projector. Above the plate are pressure guide rollers to keep the loop from "walking up" from the endless loop film coil. The film loop sits very loose on the plate to allow the film to compensate as film is being pulled out of the plate from the inside edge of the coil while the film is taken up on the outside edge. These 16mm units can be modified to 8mm by changing a spacer to allow the pressure guide rollers to drop down to the film loop. Loopers are used by museums and art exhibits......I set up one a few weeks ago for Art Basel in Miami Beach.

kevin jackman · December 22, 2010

the norris unit would be nice to find. i really need a proper system because i will need three projectors so i dont want to do a complex system. the cartridge system wont fit the situation. thanks to everybody who helped out.