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The reason for taking the film sensor off is to bypass the failsafe yet still keep the automation functions intact. On some automations if you run in manual or use the FS BYPASS switch, some or all of the automation functions are also disabled. On the CFS consoles, when you put the automation in bypass the changeover will shut when the failsafe drops out while the projector keeps running. If the operator isn't in the immedaite vicinity there will be complaints of the picture "shutting off". Removing the FS sensor will completely disable it. The automation will think the failsafe is operating and keep running as if nothing ever happened. Of course, if there is a problem all hell may break loose. If you bypassed the FS this still might happen but you won't have to keep running over to the projector every five minutes to reopen the changeover.

I have had almost zero problems with poor film quality when the "new" Comp. Eng. detectors are installed. They are the ones that either have the red dots on the side of the detector blocks or else they have the little chip on the PC board. If you have the old sensor units it will pay you in the long run to replace them. They aren't that expensive. If your company has negotiated a repair exchange agreement with the company they will cost even less.

I SWEAR on stacks of Bibles, that EVERY Speilberg film in the past 6 years would fail to detect on any of the old FM35s that we had prior to upgrading to the new-style detector and reader! LOST WORLD, AMISTAD, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, and now apparently A.I. :O

Coincidence? You be the judge!

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A film festival used raw camera negative stock as an opaque leader between shorts and features when there was a lens change to be done. The stock consistently tripped our Component Engineering failsafes (which I believe have the revised sensor boards with the dot). This was actually useful since it automatically stopped the projector for the lens change.

We have also received a copy of an internal report at Warners that talks about how the optical sensors look through the film and if there is no density the sensors will not work. WRONG!!! They work by bouncing light back from the base side of the film and it is the reflectivity of the base material that will affect the results. We had to make changes when the polyestar based material came out because of differences in the amount of light scatter. Most of the changes were to the motion detector in order to increase the swing of the pulses so that they could be detected with greater reliability.

More when we have it.

After about two years a couple of the FS started "dropping out" in seemingly random places. A couple of them were attrubuatble to poor film path alignment and a couple others were found to be caused by splices catching on the lower magazine rollers as they went by.

(Question: In future revisions of the FM-35, would it be possible to include an adjustable "bobble delay"??)

Once we eliminated all those problems we found that SOME of them were still dropping out. I would take the sensor unit off and clean it with Roscoe lens cleaner and a Q-tip. I have discovered that it's NOT a good idea to use Roscoe lens cleaner! It contains blue dye. If you don't get ALL the dirt of the little sensors underneath there you will actually dye the dirt blue, making the problem WORSE! I say it's better to use good old fashioned alcohol. Just make sure the unit is completely dry before reinstalling it. If you've ever wondered if there is a good use for those stupid electric hand dryers in rest rooms, here's one. Blow your sensors dry!

This procedure bought us a couple of months but eventually more and more sensors started dying on us. The mean time between failures got shorter and shorter. About this time we discovered the new sensors and we bought a few of them. They worked perfectly, even with films that were reported to track unreliably.

I'm not exactly sure what the cause of the trouble was. I was told that it had to do with a slow decay in the IRED's intensity. I also think that a slow build up of dirt in the sensor "windows". Even if you use a Q-Tip and reach up underneath to clean it you might not get all of it. The decay and dirt build up were a deadly one-two punch, I guess.

Little by little we switched all of our failsafes to the new models and we haven't had problems for three years.

i have also seen some FM35 sensors in the field that HAVE THE RED DOT, but DO NOT have the little chip on the sensor board. I also think they had the old-style large black roller, and not the 'deep-vee' version used today.

I was at a theater today that was complaining of a cloudy image on their print of A.I. Indeed the picture was a little cloudy (lenses and port were clean) and for some reason, the operator had to fully increase the gate tension as well. (This theater has Century projectors and normally runs at the minimum tension setting. The trailers played fine.) Something is definitely different with these prints. The scene I saw was at a pool where Haley Joel Osmet pulled another kid into the pool. Can anyone verify whether this scene was clear, or just a bit cloudy? Can John Pytlak verify if the thickness of the A.I. print stock was thinner than normal?

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion