What do you use for a film viewer??

[pcg]

??-- A general forum question: what's everyone using for a film viewer?

I have an old RPS/Eltar viewer which is adequate, but hardly spectacular. It's poor under daylight conditions, & just okay in a darkened room.

Recommendations? What's the Mercedes/BMW of viewers? Or a less loaded way of putting it: what viewer is sharpest & brightest?

/Pat

[pcg]

Pulling this up to the front before it gets buried in the usual "where do I develop film" questions.

I'd be delighted to hear from those of you actually shooting & editing film, & not just talking cameras & projector bulbs.

/Pat

[Alex]

My first film was edited on an Elmo or Goko Movie viewer in the early 80's.

It was a music video, and I would make an edit or two, take the film out of the viewer and put it in a projector and "sync-it" to a flash frame and a cymbal hit on the front of the song.

I got through the project well and even made a 16mm blow-up.

I cringe now when I see the pretty time-lapse shots I cut all up for inter-cutting purposes.

Nowadays...I treat my film as a valued commodity to only be developed, directly transferred to high quality video (like Betacam SP).....

....and then edited on video. I am fortunate enough to have my own editing studio.

You might want to consider transferring you film original to BetaCam SP...."off-lining" on a low cost VHS system...and then "conforming" from your original High quality video master in an edit suite.

Because all of your decisions have already been made while you make your "off-line"....

...when you walk into the suite for the "online" video edit session, you can cut a 10 minute movie in 3 - 6 hours by simply matching the "low-resolution VHS off-line" to the high- resolution BetaCam SP original.

-Alex

[#Pedro]

Back to the initial question, which was about film viewers:

As far as I know, the best one was the proffessional "HKS-Projektorette", using a high-quality grain-free projection system and a horizontal construction. But I never owned one.
The second best are the Goko / Erno /H?hnel viewers (same construction) with flicker-free V-System. They are motor-driven, came originally with a 10W bulb and a large ground glass screen. Nowadays you can easyly exchange the original bulb thru a halogen bulb with the same socket, which provides a very bright image. (Wittner has the bulb for about $9)

The three mentioned viewers can be modified to a sync-locked viewer or purchased reconditioned as a sync-locked viewer. With this modification, they run in perfect sync along with the tape where you edit the soundtrack (backwards and forewards). This way linear editing is very easy as you always can look at your actual film frame. And you?ll get a real film as a result (and not a video tape.)

The H?hnel and the Goko models were also availabale with Stereo sound system for direct recording and playback.

I have the Erno M1801 motor viewer which is very good and very bright with the halogen bulb.

If you do real film editing, it?s worth to use a proffessional splicer, too. The very best one is the Hamman system, the cutter and the separate splicer. The cutter cuts the film directly wedge-shaped, without producing any dust. The two ends of the cutted film can direcly be spliced together without any further treatment. The result is very hard to distinguish from a non-spliced peace of film.

Pedro

[pcg]

Alex & Pedro,

Thanks for the comments...

I do transfer to video, but only after hand editing the film. My background is art school/large scale painting & I enjoy the hands-on process. I even enjoy the occasional obvious splice flash. And Pedro, I use a great CIRO splicer that yields amazingly seamless cuts.

But the physical work of hand-editing creates a different product than the digital end (where I go to sync sound & cleanup effects that I just can't do by hand)...

The idea of the halogen replacement for the old 10W bulb is inspired. Do you have a source or # for Wittner?

Great comments. Thanks.

Has anyone ever heard of the Elmo 912 viewer? Comments?

/Pat

[Alex]

If you're talking about the motorized Elmo viewer, we purchased one at Cal State University, Northridge...(aka C.S.U.N.) for our film club.

Gosh, I guess I did a lot with Super-8 in college now that I look back.

I liked the Elmo Viewer, it had a film counter of sorts, a sturdy knob for engaging the film in the film path...a nice bright vivid screen.

I thought it was a bit unwieldly when it came to removing the film from the path for editing and splicing purposes...and I don't know how well or if it worked at all without the motor being on.

You know, you could transfer your super-8 footage first, when it is pristine, then edit your project with a viewer.

The knock on Ciro Splicers is the blade goes dull....are they easily replaceable?

My all-time favorite splicer was the Hervic splicer....then I started using the Wurker splicer....I assume neither is available anymore.

The one knock on the Hervic was if you tried to put Hervic splices through the rank, the film would either "stretch" or jump whenever it got to a splice-point...

The Wurker splices went perfectly through the Rank Cintel Gate.

-Alex

[#Pedro]

Hi Pat!

Look here, the link for the lamp is the main catalouge of wittners:
http://www.wittner-kinotechnik.de/katalog/frame_ho.html

On the left navigation bar, click on "Alles ums Licht" (All about light) and scroll down to the last article, that?s it.

The exact type is described in the text in this way (Socket type Ba15s, ordering number 4093, price incl. taxes DM 18,95):

"6V/10W Halogenlampe f?r Filmbetrachter m. Ba15s-Sockel
Best.-Nr. 4093, netto DM 16,34, brutto DM 18,95"

The splicer you were talking about sounds interesting. What kind of splicer is that and how does it work? I was only mentioning the Hamman, because it?s actually in production an giving an extraordinary good quality, important for sound striping.

Pedro

[This message has been edited by #Pedro (edited February 19, 2001).]

[eddie]

I use some sort of viewer/editor, hand wound and just about sufficent, if a pain in the arse. Hard to get bulbs though. I use motorbike (indicator, I think) bulbs in it, which only last about 5 hours, and then burn out.

[pcg]

Thanks for everyone's continuing comments!

/Pat

[Nigel]

I agree with Alex. I get a BetaSP Xfer and a VHS Timecoded Simuldub that I make my Offline with. When I do shoot stuf that I know I won't Xfer then I have a Minette S-5. I think it is the best viewer ever created by human beings. I would suggest it over any other. Irv Higdon in California can sell you one call him 1-800-318-3259.