OT: Really Stupid Solution

MichaelS wrote on 11/26/2003, 6:11 PM
Let me preface this OT post with the statement that I do not advise anyone to use this solution to this problem. It's really stupid for a variety of technical and safety reasons...but it worked...for today.

I have used an ELMO telecine 16mm machine to convert film to video for quite some time. Well, the darn thing broke. We sent it back to ELMO and they wanted around $3000.00 (lots of zeros) to repair it. It seems that ELMO parts are only available from ELMO...at their price! A serious lesson learned.

Anyway, I had a project that demanded that I import some 16mm. I have several 16mm single speed projectors sitting around, but because of the inherent "flicker" problem, they were useless.

I had a bright idea...that worked! I ran down to the local Home Depot and purchased one of those decorative lamp dimmers. I plugged the projector up through it...dropped the voltage just a bit...slowed the projector's motors down...and presto...perfect 16mm transfer. Of course, the lamp dimmed proportionately, but I just opened the iris on the camera up to compensate.

I'm pretty sure this would burn the machine up if I continued to use it in this manner, but for the 10 minutes of film I needed...it got me through the day.

And yes, I did have to adjust the speed of the clip in Vegas to achieve the final result.

What a fun day!

Comments

rebel44 wrote on 11/26/2003, 6:30 PM
That was a "good one". That tell you that enything is possible and can be work around obstacles.
ave a fun.
farss wrote on 11/26/2003, 7:09 PM
I had some luck using a 8mm projector on the wall. It didn't have a 5 blade shutter either. Had to switch the camera to manual and set the shutter speed as low as it would go. There didn't seem to be any flicker though.

Even if there is there is a filter for Virtual Dub to get rid of the flicker.

I have two Elmo 8mm telecines and I'm very nervous of something breaking in them. I had the colling fan in one die and I managed to import two from Arrow Electronics in the US, which ended up costing me a bundle just for two $12 fans. They added a $50 handling fee and charge $37 for shipping.

By the sound of it though cheaper than buying the bits from Elmo.


Depending on which part broke it maybe cheaper to find an old fitter and turner and get him to make the part. Your solution is probably safe enough except you should isolate the feed to the motor and only feed that from the dimmer. I'd also be adding an extra fan as the main fan is on the end of the motor shaft so it too will run slower but hey PC fans are very cheap.

If you do find someone handy with lathes and the like he could possibly even make you a five blade shutter then you'd be laughing.
MichaelS wrote on 11/26/2003, 7:29 PM
This particular machine captured the image internally and output a composite video signal with audio. A really nice machine when it worked.

The problem with our ELMO was not mechanical. The built-in video "pickup" unit failed. It cost us a couple of hundred dollars in bench charges and shipping only to find out that the repair cost would greatly exceed the machine's profit ability.

I'm not in the film transfer business, so it's not a big deal. Just thought I'd share a bit of yankee ingenuity.