16mm Contact Printer

Bryan Darling · March 23, 2006

Hi, I organize a non-profit film co-op/collective in Sacramento, CA. We are in the midst of creating a DIY darkroom lab for our group and for outside programs with schools and the community. Does anyone have any contacts or ideas on how we could obtain a contract printer such as the Bell & Howell Model J? We'd like the ability to print a soundtrack onto the print.

In addition we are looking for a small processor for 16mm black & white negative for small runs that use a minimum of chemistry and maintenance. We are also looking for an optical printer for 16mm with the option to blow-up Super 8 to 16mm.

We'd prefer to find a lab or person who would be willing to donate the equipment for a tax-deduction. It would be convenient if they were in California or a surrounding state.

Thanks,

Bryan

John Pytlak RIP · March 23, 2006

Hi, I organize a non-profit film co-op/collective in Sacramento, CA. We are in the midst of creating a DIY darkroom lab for our group and for outside programs with schools and the community. Does anyone have any contacts or ideas on how we could obtain a contract printer such as the Bell & Howell Model J? We'd like the ability to print a soundtrack onto the print.

In addition we are looking for a small processor for 16mm black & white negative for small runs that use a minimum of chemistry and maintenance. We are also looking for an optical printer for 16mm with the option to blow-up Super 8 to 16mm.

We'd prefer to find a lab or person who would be willing to donate the equipment for a tax-deduction. It would be convenient if they were in California or a surrounding state.

Thanks,

Bryan

Old printers sometimes show up on e-Bay. Look for auctions of labs that went out of business or are upgrading equipment. And check with dealers of used motion picture equipment like Hollywood Film Company.

Bryan Darling · March 23, 2006

Old printers sometimes show up on e-Bay. Look for auctions of labs that went out of business or are upgrading equipment. And check with dealers of used motion picture equipment like Hollywood Film Company.

Thanks John, do you have any other names of dealers in used surplus mp equipment?

Bryan

Clive Tobin · March 24, 2006

...Does anyone have any contacts or ideas on how we could obtain a contract printer such as the Bell & Howell Model J?...

Here's a duplicate of the reply I just posted on the competing slotcar/novel website :-) :

There have been two companies lately trying to sell B&H C printers on Ebay. Eyepec (Industrial Photographic Equipment in California) and the dudes in Florida (I forget their user name.) For the ridiculously low price of under $2000. I think these were originally $30,000 machines 40 years ago which would be a fortune in today's money, $300,000 maybe?

Watch out: For a C Printer to work for picture printing you also need the program tape perforator, a regulated 120 volts DC at 10 amps, a Sola 500+ watt harmonic neutralized regulating transformer and rectifier to get 165 volts DC for the tape reader, and ideally compressed air. Although you could run it in the "test" mode without a program tape for printing the sound track only.

J printers are museum pieces now and must be continually oiled in multiple holes every day it is used or else the steel-on-steel "bearings" will screech and seize up and the machine will have to be taken apart to get it turning again. J printers do rarely turn up on Ebay. The stock J uses a now-nonexistent lamp, a CWY 300 watt which hasn't been made in decades. The one I used to have I converted to take an ELH slide projector lamp instead.

For decent prints you need to get the original film ultrasonically cleaned. You need a safelight for handling and threading the printer in the darkroom. The filter is a #8 for color print stock and a #OA for B&W positive. Threading and running either printer is way beyond the scope of this note or any future hypothetical email.

For what all that is worth. Cheers.

Bryan Darling · March 24, 2006

Here's a duplicate of the reply I just posted on the competing slotcar/novel website :-) :

There have been two companies lately trying to sell B&H C printers on Ebay. Eyepec (Industrial Photographic Equipment in California) and the dudes in Florida (I forget their user name.) For the ridiculously low price of under $2000. I think these were originally $30,000 machines 40 years ago which would be a fortune in today's money, $300,000 maybe?

Watch out: For a C Printer to work for picture printing you also need the program tape perforator, a regulated 120 volts DC at 10 amps, a Sola 500+ watt harmonic neutralized regulating transformer and rectifier to get 165 volts DC for the tape reader, and ideally compressed air. Although you could run it in the "test" mode without a program tape for printing the sound track only.

J printers are museum pieces now and must be continually oiled in multiple holes every day it is used or else the steel-on-steel "bearings" will screech and seize up and the machine will have to be taken apart to get it turning again. J printers do rarely turn up on Ebay. The stock J uses a now-nonexistent lamp, a CWY 300 watt which hasn't been made in decades. The one I used to have I converted to take an ELH slide projector lamp instead.

For decent prints you need to get the original film ultrasonically cleaned. You need a safelight for handling and threading the printer in the darkroom. The filter is a #8 for color print stock and a #OA for B&W positive. Threading and running either printer is way beyond the scope of this note or any future hypothetical email.

For what all that is worth. Cheers.

Thanks Clive,

I found a scanned manual that came with the J Printers. It didn't seem to complex. It did show however where to lubricate along with info on maintenance. I have a background in many years of lab work in the still photo industry and although it's not the same, there are similarities in process both chem. and equipment wise. Plus I got to run the AV cart in junior high!!

Thanks for the post, any info in regards to this stuff is most appreciated.

Thanks,

Bryan

March 26, 2006

Old Home Movies filmmaking magazines had articles on printing film at home. They'd show how to turn a normal film projector into a printer. I tried it just to see if one would actually pull bipacked film off a reel and it did. Two films are loaded onto a reel and two strands are pulled through the gate at the same time. Try it! The projector lamp is replaced by one of lower wattage on a variable resistor. Light leaks are somehow gotten rid of. I remember that a tin can was used to house the new bulb? THEY got it to work. A filmmaker in Ohio did the same and got his to work. Just an idea. You might be able to make one that way.

Michael Carter in Pgh PA

Bryan Darling · March 26, 2006

We have a Superior Bulk printer that needs rehabilitation. I'd rather work on that than do a modified projector. I was hoping for something a little more professional and versatile. I've been offered a processor however I don't want to deal with a huge one. I'd rather use a small Cramer.

B-

March 27, 2006

We have a Superior Bulk printer that needs rehabilitation. I'd rather work on that than do a modified projector. I was hoping for something a little more professional and versatile. I've been offered a processor however I don't want to deal with a huge one. I'd rather use a small Cramer.

B-

I know someone who just bought a Cramer and trucked it across the USA. Contact me for his email. We both have the same old cameras from the same seller.

I have some things you may be able to use for your school, too.

Michael Carter

Pittsburgh Filmmakers student