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Portable 35mm projector


Luigi Castellitto

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Hello friends,

do you recommend some small and portable 35mm projectors? Useful for projecting small films in 35mm, such as 100feet home films, or short films of few minutes.

Not a movie of hours, of course!


It's hard to find them, because with the search "35mm projector" come out from eBay and similar slide projectors.

It would be appropriate to know brands and names.


Fine even very old projectors, even crank, just as functional to the projection.


Ah, low price range!


Thank you!

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Frank, for the experimental use I would like to make of 35mm it would be good an auto build machine. One my compatriots have created a 35mm projector with an "Arduino" hardware (there is an international version of this hardware?), but I'm not a good builder, also for a cranked version.
For cases like mine there is Lomokino, but as I said to those who recommended it to me, I don't really like the non-fluid effect.

Maybe I found a good Konvas 35mm, but for the projector is more difficult.

 

I saw something cranked version, not for sale, it would also be a nice piece of decor. :)

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It's a toy projector and way, way overpriced. The images would be very dim and you'd destroy your film in about 3 passes through the projector.

 

Since you are in Italy, you should look for a vintage 35mm silent film projector (assuming you can live without sound upon projection).

 

In the U.S., you can find something like a Powers or DeVry or Universal Projector for a few hundred dollars if you look around a bit.

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Something like this has sound: https://www.ebay.com/itm/WW-II-Holmes-NAVY-Portable-35mm-Sound-Projector-Fully-Restored-Museum-Quality/282578542468?hash=item41cafe5f84:g:q4oAAMXQR4FRjq5d

 

Check around your area for old men who collect projectors. Trust me, they exist and they have machines that are marginal or incomplete and will try to get you interested in their hobby, so they will sell it to you cheap IF you gain their trust.

 

If nothing else, they would probably project your footage for you for free.

 

Millions of projectors were made and a lot of them survive, but only in collections and in back rooms of eccentric old men like myself...

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In the German Democratic Republic they built the TK 35 as an "portable" projector, which was very often used for mobile cinemas in Germany also after 1990.

You can get them with many accessories or without...

...but maybe it is too large and heavy for you...

...so maybe that one you post in the link is better for you...

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  • 6 months later...

Years ago I purchased a old Zeiss Ikon TK35 portable and converted it to 500watt halogen lamp and fitted a modern amplifier to it. It got me into 35 at very low cost all in but more recently I upgraded to a Kinoton floor stander. The old TK35 was a good introduction to 35mm and was built to last. They came in grey with later models in Blue colour.

 

More modern portable machines were always expensive and still hold a good price even today. Keep looking you will find something.

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I have a DeVry 35mm projector and KEM 35mm flatbed for examining prints. Funny enough, working with 35mm over-all is so much more difficult than 16mm because of how proprietary even the smallest of things can be. For instance, the outboard audio amplifier for the DeVry is hard to find and required for using sound with it.

 

If you're just looking to look at a few prints, it maybe easier to find someone near you who has a projector.

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Call ARRI. Maybe they still have a LOCPRO

 

Else: Debrie Jacky https://fr.shopping.rakuten.com/offer/buy/1782213013/projecteur-de-cinema-portatif-cine-cabine-jacky-debrie.html.,DeVry, RCA, Holmes, Philips, Kinoton, Zeiss-TK, Microcine, Wassmann

 

I love the LOCPRO! I have seen them at a number of the VFX studios where I have worked, and I once owned the medical version. Here's a photo of my son when he was about 8, looking at film of himself when he was about 1. The medical version unfortunately ran at 30fps and was bigger, it could both project (with a little arc lamp) or view on the screen (halogen lamp). One of these days I'm going to buy one of the proper LOCPRO units.

post-2507-0-50347700-1541525311_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Went to see the Victoria 8, kept in a tiny shed along a long and narrow track in the wooded hills, by a delightful older gentleman who lives in a small cottage with a lovely dog called Archie. A good subject for a film! Man, that machine is enormous. Runs on 3 phase power, has a rectifier the size of a very large amplifier, needs to be converted to regular electricity, and to a simpler light source. I think it is just too big and heavy. Suddenly the 'weaknesses' of digital projection appear to me as being, er, 'not a problem at all'.

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