Great new, Ugo Grassi, has announced he is now able to order this new improved lamp for the Elmo Lighthouse GS 1200 XENON Projector at 350 euro's . this is an improved lamp over the original Hitachi lamp with 1000 lamp hours, improved brightness and colour temp, all very good news if you have one of these projectors or were thinking of getting one. Now lets see who comes forward first, with all the talk on the other channel about this lamp, talk is cheap, lets see who supports Ugo, and puts there money where there mouth is ................

Hi Paul,

Could you put a link up for the other channel as I can't find any discussion about it on there? I assume it's the 8mm forum.

Regarding the 1000 lamp hours. Is it dependent on how often the lamp is striked? For example if you use the projector every day but only to show a few short cartoons every time on 200ft reels is the lamp life reduced to 900 hours for example?

BTW I don't have any Zenon projectors, quite happy with Halogen.

Graham S

This is very good news for users of these projectors, I dont have one myself but it's always good to see something made available again.
Ugo did a very good thread some years ago where he showed a total refurbishment of a GS Xenon he sold.

Hi Graham, its on the super 8 facebook page, i think your reasoning on the lamp hours applies to most lamps regardless of the gas inside the lamp i would have thought ?. These figures are from Ugo's own upload today, i think they close to or better than the original Toshiba lamp hours, as said by Ugo, these are the same lamps he put a lot of effort into getting right some time ago, with the help of other people in the know. Just to add obviously i cannot edit now, but these are the Toshiba lamps, not the Hitachi lamps my first upload mentioned ........

Iwould love a spare lamp for mine, but at the time, only way to be able this to sell my house. Government takes all our money these days

By the way, is it difficult to change? Heard it was kinda dangerous if you touch the lamp or anything like that. I am a clumsy guy

Hello Vidar, Ugo Grassi is going to make a video to show this being done, but that doesn't make it easier, you still need the dexterity to do the work if you don't have someone capable close to you. Replacing the lamp is tricky but more so for the new one because they have to be handled with great care, once done the lamp and reflector need to be adjusted to each other, and then some voltages have to be set up, and one particular measurement needs the use an oscilloscope, which i have, but still on a learning curve with it. I think i could do the mechanical stuff,swop out ect, and the alignment, but would struggle with the last bit, but i have someone i could go to, who's very good and i'm confident could do that bit. I already have some spare lamps the toshiba one's so i'm good to go, but i have four of these beauties, i love em, regardless of what people say they are very well made, and if maintained correctly, are as reliable as any of the other high end super 8 machines, 40 years on .................

Paul,

What are the rules on Zenon lamps regarding when to change them to avoiding exploding? Is it dangerous to change one that is slightly warm?

I'm sure I read one exploded at a BFCC many years ago.

Graham S

Xenon lamps are dangerous, even when cold. The xenon gas inside the bulb is under high pressure. So you have to be very careful when manipulating these, because they can explode when badly handled. It's not the gas that is dangerous when it explodes, but the pieces of glass...
You need to wear gloves and protection for your eyes before opening the lamp packaging or the projector lamphouse.
But if you have the right protections and are careful, then it's not that difficult to handle.

I would need it done somewhere then, this sounds tricky. Ugo is doing this service too?

Hi Vidar, i don't think he is, he is helpful though. He's just suddenly appeared again on the facebook, repairing or refurbishing a friends xenon he bought recently. What is the problem with yours then ?

For the moment it has nothing to do with the bulb, it has a claw that is not properly retracting, so picture is unsteady, it is currently in Netherlands waiting to be fixed. Bill Parsons gave him directions to fix it. But, I been using it quite a lot during the Eight years or so I had it, assuming the Lifeof the bulb soon is over. Do not dare change bulb myself

Oh right, well if anyone can help you fix it Bill's your man. I have one that will not strike, so it needs to be sorted. i hope you get it sorted, just adjustment of the claw setting cam, never done one, looks a bit tricky though, getting the balance once adjusted is where the expertise comes in, thats when years of experience count..............

I'll second that mate, its easy to take stuff apart, getting it back together properly with the right adjustments needs the qualified touch as I know only too well when playing

I think someone is talking about me... ;-)
Happy to stay here. Thanks to the administrators.
If you have questions about the new lamps I'll try to answer.