Stay away from them! They are such a Kinoton wanna be.My experience with them is from the Neumade import version and it isn't a happy one (Gord tells me that part of the problem is the Neumade/Ernemann combination and what Neumade changed)...
But the Laser pick up is a bad joke...just look at the X-Y plot and you will see what I mean...laser light uniformity is also a joke...and even if you overlook all of that....the laser failure rate is still enormous...4 failed lasers in less than one year on 11 screens that we service...and remember, failed lasers mean NO sound...a show stopper.
The wiring looks like a hobbiest did the work...in-line header pins are used extensively for connecting things like the LED and laser power supply.
The digital reader constuction is way too fragile...had one board separate from it's lens tube....alignment is also way too complicated with poorly accessable lock down screws (factory aligned, you know).
The pad rollers tend to unscrew each time the operator threads. The sprockets are not attached to the sprocket shafts with anything other than friction of the outboard hold down screw....no screw, pin key...nothing.
The gate....ah now this is a mixed bag....yes they do have velvet tension bands...you'll be lucky to get 6months out of them too....do they help the steadiness...can't really tell you, the machine picks up a lot of vibration, magnifies it in the turret and projects a shakey image, irrespective of what is going on in the gate! On thing is for damn sure, the velvet bands keep the focal plane far enough away from the aperture plate that a soft and large aperture shadow will result with the typical short focal lengths these days. Oh, and for you auto aperture lovers out there...the tension bands often lightly rest on the aperture plate so when the plate moves, the bands may come into the picture a bit. Is that what you wanted? The aperture plate moves via a bent up paper clip that is driven by a motor that runs into a stall or until the paper clip breaks...which ever comes first.
The turret...one hardly knows where to begin....The minisule lens clamping screws that can fall out (they use genuine tape in shipping to hold them in)...if you adjust the lens offset to compensate for keystoning you might cause the lens to stop rotation as the lens receiver hits the microswitches. The turret support is a joke...see above...it is a vibration magnifier.
The non-op side....could they use smaller pulleys? Oh better yet when you tension the belt the tensioning pully flexes since it is only supported on one side....How much oil is in the projector? The world may never know...they no longer have peep holes and it is sealed up case! The theory is, you drain a liter out, you put a liter in...nice theory, stupid, but a nice theory. The motor support also seems to have flex in it. It seems to set up a nice beat frequency with other vibrations, including the projector drive belt...which gets magnified in the turret!
Nope, anyone that would put in the projectors (11 of them) that I saw in operation isn't interested in presentation, picture or sound...they are pretty pieces of junk.
So put me down for "don't recommend"
Steve
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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"
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posted 08-01-2001 08:50 PM
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