That's the advice I was given by Richard Tuohey - so I went out and got one through ebay - and I can verify it's good advice. Very simple design - easily modded for whatever transfer strategy you adopt.
Has a variable speed control: 14 to 24 fps. But you can mod the power supply to get slower frame rates. Also has still frame mode but this is useless for transfer as you can't automate advance of the film in this mode. Same would go for Eumig.
For my own system I replaced the continuous motor with a stepper motor, for advancing the film a frame at a time under computer control.
There are circuit ideas out there for adjusting motor speed to exact rates through a feedback system that monitors the rotation of the shutter and adjust the motor power to lock in on a certain frequency. Certain frame rates are optimum for transfers involving a video camera, but still lead to frame blends which you don't, ideally want.
Other ideas monitor the shutter blades, not to adjust motor speed per se, but in order to know which frames (of the resulting video) are good frames.
Light source.
I removed the projector bulb and instead direct a daylight balanced flouroscent via a mirror as the light source. Other ideas include using an array of LEDs - a combo of red, green and blue LEDs to obtain different colour balances. White LEDS are another option but they don't provide for the best colour reproduction.
At slow frame rates, or single frame you must use an alternative light source because the built in halogen light is far too hot and will melt your film. Indeed the Elmo has a grill plate that pops up to cut down the light (and associated heat) when in still frame mode. But I wouldn't even trust the grill plate to avoid damage to the film. Even at normal frame rate I don't trust the halogen to not damage film.
Modern light sources such as LEDs and power saving light bulbs emit far less heat.
Thanks for the in-depth response and great advice. I think I'll go for one of those, it looks ideal!
I plan to start off with real time capture then move on to the frame by frame as things evolve. With regards to 'frame blend' I was planning on initially capturing with a tube camera so that's not really an issue for me at the moment But will eventually get a hi res device.
I think I can stomach the colour temperature of the white LED's and just adjust settings on the computer if its looks too cold.
