Elmo

ELMO 8 

Elmo made a very good silent Standard 8 machine, the E80(pic1), a proper projector made of metal. The Elmo FP-A Dual demonstrates that plastic does not age well; white or grey tends to yellow, often with what look like brown nicotine patches at points of wear. And of course it loses flexibility and strength, becoming brittle and fragile. And the outside is ....... unimaginative.

Very much at the other end of the scale are the later S8 machines such as the ST 1200 and its bigger bro, the GS1200. 

With lenses as fast as F1.0, the latter machine was capable of excellent light output, despite being limited to a 200w lamp in its non-Xenon standard form (although some apparently take a chance and use 250w anyway). If you are not worried about silent, a two-bladed shutter can offer even more. At the extreme, Bill Parsons fitted a metal halide lamp (like in digital projectors), light from which well exceeded that from the Xenon. However, although some view the GS1200 as the ultimate in S8 projection, others find it over-complex (it has no fewer than 4 separate motors) and more prone to breakdown than the ST1200, which does most of the same stuff. I have to confess a preference for "point and shoot" (playback) projectors - I am never going to use all the fancy recording arrangements the GS1200 offers - and I wonder just how many have ever done? There are also those who say that the GS1200 film path can cause scratching unless parts are replaced, but I am unable to give any thoughts on this. I probably don't run any one film often enough to see one way or the other.

There have been a number of other Elmos, usually smaller machines but with good capabilities. I also owned at one time a variant (of a type produced by many manufacturers) which could use either a small internal screen or project normally, although, certainly in the case of the Elmo, witha penalty in the level of light for the "normal" projection mode. It was called a Hi-Vision or some such, and I thought it was well done, with a lovely compact mech, almost slimmed down version of the basic Elmo mech pattern.

I have tended not to go into much detail with most S8mm machines, since they are a) not my area of interest and b) beyond my capabilities!