3106 photography - classic camera collection

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3106.photography

Created 30 September 2005 ... Updated 29 May 2009

Film Equipment

Some day I found an large cardbox box with what looked like old photography equipment offered for sale on eBay. Although the picture was very small it looked like there was an old film projector in there as well so I bought it for one euro. I should not have done that, it was the start of a new collection, a collection of old movie equipment.

This projector is a Ditmar dual format projector made in the 1930s. Many versions have been made till late 1950s. My projector is the pre-war black version made for 9.5mm and 16mm silent movies. The original spool arms could only hold smaller spools but is a larger arm for use with larger spools. Unfortunately there were neither films nor spare spools in the box so it was time for checking the internet again, trying to find information, spools, films and a replacement for the dried and broken rubber belts.

Replacing the belts

Unfortunately the local shops got rid of most of there film equipment a few years ago. They could however have the belt remade but this turned out to be expensive and the belt did not fit correctly. Searching the internet unveiled the site of Gerhard Giessmann and I ordered the starter set. Upon arrival I read the instructions carefully and although it all sounded a little difficult, it proved to be very easy to obtain good results.

Pathe Baby Film

Finding films

Finding film in 16mm silent format with double perforation turned out not to be too easy, many 16mm movies for sale but most are in single perforation sound format. But eBay is a great source for anything and when your patient enough, you can always find old black and white silent movies.

Finding 9.5mm movies is also not too difficult, there is eBay.co.uk. Apparently this home cinema format was most popular in France, where it was invented, and in England. Many films to be had, and especially funny are the short Pathée films that come in metal containers. Since 9.5mm films was targeted to amateur filmers sometimes a nice personal movie comes up for sale, showing life in the 1930s. Seems to be the start of yet another collection. Check my celluloid pages for information on my film collection.

How it works

Since I had never every played films, I kind of had to guess how things worked but was more-or-less stuck as it looked easy to break things. Fortunately there was another Ditmar Dual Gouge projector for sale and it included the original instruction manual. So I asked the buyer to send me a copy of the manual, which he did for a small fee. This got me started and I got hooked on projecting movies. Forget the high tech digital home cinema projectors, they are nothing more than expensive toys. Real projectors are the thing, the engine running, the smell of hot grease and warmed up old dust, the huge flimmering pictures on the wall, you'll just have to love it! Granted, changing reels every 10-15 minutes is a little tedious after a while but this is magic, a real low tech experience.
Just to get you started I have made some instruction manuals available for free download.

Please do not resell the manuals, link to the pdf directly or upload them to other internet servers
Of course you may link to the corresponding pages of my website freely, that's how the internet works and that's how the traffic volumes can be checked in order to keep this a free service for my website visitors.

The equipment

Projectors
Ditmar 2960 Dual Gauge
Bolex 8-15 Automatic
"Ozaphan"-Film-Projektor Nr. 2 (Norris Kadett)

Cameras
Eumig C3 Camera
Eumig C3M Camera
Eumig MINI 3 Servofocus
Pentaka 8B Camera
Revue Cockpit S/8 RM

Celluloid Films
the Celluloid Film collection
Single movie frames

Documentation

Ditmar 2960 Projector
Bedienungsanleitung
German, 1.1 Mb [pdf] Bolex 18-5 Projector
Gebrauchsanweisung
German, 1.0 Mb [pdf] Ozaphan Projector
( Norris Kadett )
Gebrauchsanweisung
German, 612 Kb [pdf]

Eumig C3m Camera
Bedienungsanleitung
German, 4.5 Mb [pdf] Pentaka 8B camera
Anleitung
German, 262 Kb [pdf] Pathé Lux Projector
Catalogue 1931
German, 44 Kb

Rumi Splicer
Instructions
295 Kb [pdf] Eumig Splicer 1960s
Instructions
500 Kb [pdf] Film Run Times
correlation between
length and run time
L in Meters, 46 Kb [pdf]
L in Feet, 46 Kb [pdf]

Classic Film Equipment weblinks

Grahame Newnham
The web site of a "neuf-five", i.e. a 9.5 millimeter film enthousiast. Highly informative.

Cinematographica
Great site with a lot of information including "more than one hundred years of Film Sizes".

Northeast Historic Film
Northeast Historic Film has a large and growing collection of unique moving-image
materials relating to the history and culture of northern New England.

Walthamstow Amateur CineVideo Club
An active Film Club with some interesting articles.

F. and S. Marriott
Instruction Books, Guides to Cine Gauges, Cameras and Projectors
information about metering systems, articles on history.

Film-Tech.com
Information and Forums about everything film. Also the full collection of
Eastman Kodak Film Notes and many manuals.

B. Jones
Many movie camera manuals.

The Widescreen Center
A London shop selling 8mm and 16mm film equipment and movie stock.

Jürgen Lossau
Beautiful books listing many many cameras and projectors for any format
smaller than 35 mm. Also check out the book on splicers.

GM Giessmann
Source for do-it-yourself (projector-) belts.
It's easier to make those yourself than you might think.