I was wondering which projectors are most commonly seen in booths today (ie. both old and new styles).

Also if possible, what would be the going rate for buying either a new or used one (if still manufactured).

Thanks

In Sweden, the Cinemeccanica Victoria 5 is more or less the norm these days, even though there are a lot of Kinoton machines around. Most flagship theatres here still have a pair of Philips DP70s (Norelco AA-II). My theatre, where we mostly run archive prints, uses a pair of Zeiss Favorit70 projectors, a Philips FP56, and a Bauer Selecton II for 16mm.

There used to be a lot of Ernemann and Bauer machines in the older booths, but most of these theatres are now gone. Also, the Swedish AGA Ultra used to be fairly common (but is not, anymore).

Strangely enough, I've never seen a Century or a Simplex in a Swedish booth, even though I understand they're quite common in the American booths. The only Century machines I've actually seen myself were old Cinemiracle machines, plus a cute little 35mm thing owned by a friend of mine.

As for buying a used 35mm projector, that depends. Around here it used to be fairly easy to get hold of an old Ernemann or a Bauer, for very little or no money, since the multiplex owners had a bunch of them in storage after all those theatres they closed down. They were of little use to them, yet they were reluctant to just throw them away.

When I worked for the local theatre chain, I asked for and got a 35/70mm Zeiss Favorit70 without having to pay anything. They had several of them after closing down some of the larger cinemas in the country. The technical manager hadn't had the heart to get rid of any of them. I guess I got mine because he thought I'd take good care of it.

In most modern booths you will find:
35mm:

Simplex (XL, 1015, 1050)
Century (SA and related models)
Christie (GP35 and related)
Cinemeccanica
Norelco/Kinoton (FP20 and related models)

35/70mm:

Century (JJ)
Simplex (XL3570)
Norelco (AAII, DP75)

In most older theatres using the original equipment you will usually find:

Simplex (Super, E7, early model XL)
Century (C, H)
Brenkert (BX40,60,80,100)
Motiograph (AAA)

Aaron

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I think today, people are tending to stay away from Cinemeccanica. They lost a patent-infringment lawsuit, (not related to motion-picture equipment) and either are- or are close to bankruptcy.

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And the cell for the optical sound is a major pain. And Gordon, just last week a guy threaded a V8 wrong here and totally destroyed an optical cell. That's the third one since polyster became widespread.

Aligning the mag head is not easy either, since there are no adjustments at all. You kind of install it and hope it's good. We tried using the mag head that came with it, and it clogged so much we threw it away (with only 10-12 hours on it) and got a Teccon.

I was very unhappy with the tech support for Cinemeccanica. I never delt with the new guys in Californa, but I hear they are not so good. I did deal with the people in Flordia when it was there, and there was only one guy that knew anything, and he left. I got so annoyed, I called up Cinemeccanica of Canada and talked to a guy who was pretty good. He wasn't allowed sell anything, but gave me good advice.

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