Small Format Film Forum

I have just purchased a cute 16mm projector. It's a Hokushin SC-10 made in Japan, and it has a most unusual auto-thread mechanism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2Ltcoe00y8
Does anybody own or have experience of this machine?
I have the optical only model but there was also an opt/mag version.
I understand that the Dutch government favoured this make of projector for its armed forces which explains why so many are available in Holland.
Hokushin projectors were branded as "Apollo" in the USA.

Maurice

Hi Maurice,

These projectors are great! Where did you get yours? The autothreading is exellent, and a completely open filmpath. Do you have the older purple 200W or the more recent 250W? You are right, there are a lot of these projectors here in Holland, a firm called Technofilm had a contract to supply them to the armed forces and schools, and serviced them. They are still plentiful and cheap, the purple models go for around 50 euro.
But of course there's also a downside.. They only take their own brand of lenses, which are hard to find. So in most cases you are stuck with the standard 50mm issue, and maybe a screw-on zoomconverter, which looses a lot of light. I recently bought another purple one, only for the hand crafted lens adaptor that came with it, so now I'm able to use the 42,5mm lenses with it.
The later SC-10 blue models take the standard Eiki lenses, though, but they are rare. So maybe you are lucky and have one of these? And then there's the SC-210, slotload, like the Elmo 16-CL, but with line out and 42,5mm (Eiki) lenses, and no melting rubber rollers. That's the one to look for.. Also in 300W Xenon version, which I'm lucky to have.
Have a look here for the top-end models: http://www.super8.nl/english/e_frame_rent_hokushin.htm

Dear Peter
Here is a pic of my later blue version with 250w lamp. The name plate has a date of 1982.

Maurice

It's a beauty

I do love the idea of the open filmpath which is why I tend to only use Manual threading machines.

The filmpath on this one is a bit out of the ordinary though.

Are they kind to film?

You will see that the two sprockets, picture gate, sound system and take-up rollers are all in a circular path. This is for the auto-thread lever which rotates from 12 o'clock and back to its original position, the gate hinging before the arm gets there.

There is no need to trim the film, it just clips to the top of the arm. You let the motor feed enough film to reach the take-up spool, and then stop it whilst the film is removed from its clip, and the end attached by hand to the spool.

The projector can be manually laced by holding the lens forward against its spring.

This later model Hokushin SC-10 uses the A1/259 lamp (24v 250w) and a G5 exciter (6v 1a).

Maurice