Jump to content

Fairchild 900 Series Camera: Another Project (Double 8mm Format)


Tanner Martin

Recommended Posts

I just recently picked up a Fairchild 900 Series Standard 8mm camera for relatively cheap secondhand. I couldn't find a sub-thread specifically for double 8mm for I figured I'd post it here. It's a single-system Sound camera from 1967 (I think?) for the double 8mm format. It came with an external magazine for up to a 200ft size film role of double 8mm. The optics appear in fine order but I cant seem to get power to the camera. It's supposed to run off of a rechargeable battery in the handgrip. The wallmount and camera uses a 5 prong Din cable to connect the battery to the camera, and to charge the battery from the wall. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to go about looking into this problem? I know it's a bit of a rare camera, but any help would be appreciated. I'll include pictures of it below. I did manage to get the camera manual with it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A repair shop might be able to take on the task of recelling the power supply for you.  Or you could alternatively make up your own external power supply and plug it into the camera.  This camera was the top of the line and 4rth version of the FAIRCHILD Double 8mm Single-System Sound film cameras.  The earlier ones were the single lens model, the triple lens turret version, and the 10mm to 30mm reflex zoom lens version.  They all ran at 24fps for magnetic sound recording on pre-striped Double 8mm movie film, and the non-magazine versions held 50ft spools.   The only real advantage to the FAIRCHILD 900 was the ability to use the magazine for extended filming.   You'd have to locate Double 8mm film in bulk to spool down your own 200ft lengths of film if you actually want to shoot that much.  It would be only in silent of course, since pre-striped mag filmstock has long been discontinued. Although, it is possible, though expensive, to have silent stock pre-striped by someone having the capability, or get the gear together to do it yourself.  While an otherwise nice looking camera, if you are truly into filming in Standard 8mm, I would consider any one of the nice BOLEX H-8 to H-8RX cameras out there which allow spools of 25ft, 50ft and 100ft in Double 8mm.  Alternatively ELMO made a nice Double 8mm that also has a magazine option for holding 100ft spools, with the main camera only using standard 25ft spools.  Lots to think about for sure, if you want to get that 900 model into a user.

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • Premium Member

It could be a project to replace the magnetic heads by an optical one and feed an LED with linear signals. You’d need to install a very narrow slit between the LED and the film, maybe a microphotograph of a black line on a piece of sound recording film. The line should be clear, surrounded by opaque black, four tenths by 0.032" or so. Then you can try out photographic sound recording on the available Double-Eight stocks.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Simon. That is a fascinating idea. However, I would love to use this technique to burn timecode preferably at the gate but I would be willing to live with an offset of 'n' frames. This could be applicable many cameras. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/24/2019 at 2:11 PM, Martin Baumgarten said:

A repair shop might be able to take on the task of recelling the power supply for you.  Or you could alternatively make up your own external power supply and plug it into the camera.  This camera was the top of the line and 4rth version of the FAIRCHILD Double 8mm Single-System Sound film cameras.  The earlier ones were the single lens model, the triple lens turret version, and the 10mm to 30mm reflex zoom lens version.  They all ran at 24fps for magnetic sound recording on pre-striped Double 8mm movie film, and the non-magazine versions held 50ft spools.   The only real advantage to the FAIRCHILD 900 was the ability to use the magazine for extended filming.   You'd have to locate Double 8mm film in bulk to spool down your own 200ft lengths of film if you actually want to shoot that much.  It would be only in silent of course, since pre-striped mag filmstock has long been discontinued. Although, it is possible, though expensive, to have silent stock pre-striped by someone having the capability, or get the gear together to do it yourself.  While an otherwise nice looking camera, if you are truly into filming in Standard 8mm, I would consider any one of the nice BOLEX H-8 to H-8RX cameras out there which allow spools of 25ft, 50ft and 100ft in Double 8mm.  Alternatively ELMO made a nice Double 8mm that also has a magazine option for holding 100ft spools, with the main camera only using standard 25ft spools.  Lots to think about for sure, if you want to get that 900 model into a user.

Any recommendations on where to possibly send it to get fixed? I'm not exactly the most versed when it comes to dealing with electronics. Plus, I dont even know what amperage the camera uses, just the voltage. I was lucky enough when i purchased the camera that it came with 3 rolls of pre striped double 8mm film (unfortunately Kodachrome II, so I'll be lucky to get a semi ok b&w image out of it.) But if the film fails, the stripe on it will be good enough to see is the audio circuit/head works. As for a source of extended recording film, I know there are some places in the EU that offer extended film loads (Orwo and Kahl films if I remember correctly) in both 100ft loads for b&w negatives, and 400ft spools of print films in double 8mm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

This forum will not allow me to upload the picture I took of my custom cable as it exceeds the maximum size allowed. I am not surprised this forum is dying. An engineer at work utilized the wiring diagram in the manual to put together a custom 4-pin XLR to 5-pin DIN cable. The 5-pin DIN connector came form the originally supplied Fairchild cable. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay. I have the diagram for how the pins are laid out in the original manual for the 5 pin din portion. You can upload the picture to a google drive or something and just link it, that's what I had to do for the pictures of the camera.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

   The Fairchild 900...200ft spool camera was introduced at Photokina in Jan. 1965...the same month Super 8 format was introduced.   I recall reading about the new Fairchild camera but never realized they went into production until I read your initial post.   I figured Fairchild gave up with the introduction of new format ....anyway, Fairchild never introduced another camera. The sound system this camera used was new, Hall Sensor System and the patent was sold to Kodak who used it in their first super 8 sound camera which did not come out til 1973.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

The earlier designs of this camera featured a very different body built of thick plastic, sort of a self-blimp.  I see those on ebay quite a bit:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UbBsI76qqPJF1hNLLMwY_njEyCKVUELt/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19OBW4zqLO7nX-b3ikP07hymqV2kIugkG/view?usp=sharing

Has anyone had experience working with those? How quiet were they if at all? The video in this thread of the most recent model is very loud, but it's a very different design with thin walls. 

They are not expensive to buy on ebay.  However, restoring those might be a bit more cumbersome, because the battery (very heavy from what I understand)  is inside the camera.  There is a door (I can see on pictures) to remove/replace the battery, but I'm not sure how easy that is to do.  If the camera is indeed somewhat quiet (there must be a reason for those thick walls), it would make it an interesting choice: 1) low price and 2) interchangeable D-mount lens.

Anyone has experience with making these cameras work (replacing the battery)?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...