Re: syncing 2 16mm projectors

From: Joost Rekveld (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Sep 24 2007 - 15:05:10 PDT


I have seen such a setup (in Holland, so not much use to you), two
beautiful xenon hokushin projectors synced with a custom-built setup:
speed encoders on the shaft and some pulse system in a box to sync
the motors. In many ways not much different to the syncing method
used to sync perf recorders, and not very hi-tech either, even though
the gentle art of syncing motors is not much in fashion these days.

It was the only such setup I ever saw, used it once to project Paul
Sharits' Razor Blades ( It was interesting to see this film in
perfect sync once, but I remember missing the tension of it running
out of sync and hoping it wouldn't be too much).

Anyway the bottom line: it can certainly be done if you have somebody
to build something similar for you, but I do not know of any out-of-
the-box solutions. But I find it hard to believe there has never been
a commrcially available sync-able projector, however obscure it may
be. I'd imagine scientific cinema has had many uses for such machines...

ciao,

Joost.

On Sep 24, 2007, at 11:27 , Dylan Armajani wrote:

> I have never seen any sort of set up that can successfully do
> this... And I
> have tried before. The problem is that once you have your two
> identical
> film reels you need to make sure they start on the exact right
> frame. And
> even if you succeed in doing this... Its rare to find 2 units that
> will
> speed up at the exact same rate.

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                                      Joost Rekveld
----------- http://www.lumen.nu/rekveld

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“This alone I ask you, O reader, that when you peruse the
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(Girolamo Cardano)

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