Pawn shop find - A great 16mm projector!

[Herb Montes]

In my younger days I used to haunt pawn shops for 8mm and Super 8mm gear. Nowadays it's harder to find movie gear in these places but once in a while I take a look and hope to find a rare gem. I did this past weekend. In a pawn shop in Houston I found a mint condition Kodak Ektagraphic CT1000 16mm movie projector. This thing is MINT! Hardly used and like new! And I got it for under $350. According to some folks I know, this is the Cadillac of 16mm projectors. Here is a link to a page about it at Film-Center.Com :

http://www.film-center.com/ct1000.html

So don't pass up a chance to look in pawn shops. You do take your chances like buying on eBay but at least you get to handle it before you buy it.

[MovieStuff]

Actually, these projectors were made by Eiki, which is what I use as the basis for my WorkPrinter-16 units:

http://www.moviestuff.tv/wp_16.html

Eikis are terrific projectors. Very robust yet gentle on film with really good registration.

Congrats on a good deal!

Roger

[Herb Montes]

Uh, sorry to contradict you Roger but they are made by Elmo. Phil Johnson in Texas City, who services and sells them, also confirms they are made by Elmo for Kodak. He swears by the Kodak and Elmo projectors. The Eikis come a close second. I had a chance to work with several lately but two of them needed servicing bad. A Xenon slot-load version I tried out worked great and that light could burn holes in a screen!

[MovieStuff]

Yes, I can see the Elmo styling now that you mention it. They certainly do look very similar!

Roger

[Actor]

I won an Elmo 16 CL in an eBay auction last year for just over $50 plus about $25 S&H. I was actually quite surprised that I won the auction (by only a few cents) and expected it to have some flaws but so far it works perfectly. My only gripe is that it runs at 24fps only. 16fps would be nice.

At the library where I work we used to have 7 or 8 of these, a mix of Elmos and Kodaks. Now we have only two, both Kodaks I think. They gave the rest to the Cinema Dept.

The two models are identical.

[Angus]

Eiki's are nice....found two languishing in a toilet (used as a storeroom) at the school where I work...coaxed them back to life last summer with some new belts and they run really nice....will probably relieve the school of one when I move on!

[petersmith]

Down at a local Pawnshop around here i remeber seeing a 16mm koadak projector for like 30$ and it looked like it was in good shape... i didnt wanna buy it since i dont have a 16mm cam but im now looking into 16mm and now im wondering should i buy the projector like can you watch the films right after recording onto film or does it have to be sent to the lab then get it back and watch it on the projector??

[slashmaster]

In my younger days I used to haunt pawn shops for 8mm and Super 8mm gear. Nowadays it's harder to find movie gear in these places but once in a while I take a look and hope to find a rare gem. I did this past weekend. In a pawn shop in Houston I found a mint condition Kodak Ektagraphic CT1000 16mm movie projector. This thing is MINT! Hardly used and like new! And I got it for under $350. According to some folks I know, this is the Cadillac of 16mm projectors. Here is a link to a page about it at Film-Center.Com :

http://www.film-center.com/ct1000.html

So don't pass up a chance to look in pawn shops. You do take your chances like buying on eBay but at least you get to handle it before you buy it.

Are the tires good or are they all gooey? Be aware that abrasive particles can embed in the tires and leave marks in the film. I use a wet q-tip to clean my tires every time I run a film. They actually act as particle transfer rollers when you use the wet q-tip every time! Also you should know that the plastic groove to the right of the first tires can leave emulsion butterflies in the film. I solved this by sawing it off. Oh yeah, you should use the 800 foot take-up reel as much as possible, only use larger take-ups when you have to. A 2000 ft metal take-up puts lots of wear on the take-up belt!

[Patrick]

im wondering should i buy the projector like can you watch the films right after recording onto film

You could do that but you would essentially ruin the film. Exposing it to all that light (outside the camera) would leave you with a blank film - ie no recorded image.

or does it have to be sent to the lab then get it back and watch it on the projector??

I would definitely recommend this option. You would then have something to watch on the projector! And in your case you would be shooting reversal film which produces a positive image so you can run it through a projector. There is also negative film. As the name suggests, this yields a negative image and you definitely do not want to run this through a projector. Usually with negative film, after shooting and developing, you send it off to get it transferred to digital so that you can watch a positive image of the film on a TV or computer monitor etc. It's also possible to get a positive film print made from negative film so you can watch the positive print on your projector.

And by the way, you don't need to have a 16mm camera to make use of a 16mm projector. You can buy 16mm film prints of documentaries, TV shows, cartoons, promotional films, feature films and short films etc. There are heaps of these on the used market. And you can also get hold of clear film and draw on it with markers or textas and make your own animation.