I was running a film last night that I remembered running a bit unsteady even after several cleanings with FilmRenew. It runs quietly, and the sprocket holes are undamaged. There is a slight vertical movement to the projected pic, but nothing horrible and certainly watchable. Then I noticed that it did not have a balance stripe. This was not a cheap film from an unknown company, but from Columbia Pictures - a 3 Stooges short.

Has anyone ever experienced this with a print without a balance stripe?

Thanks

I have many commercial films without a balance stripe and never had any problems.

Films with only a main stripe havnt caused me any problems in the past.
Some years ago, I had a problem with a number of films that were unsteady with up and down movement. While I'm no expert, movement in the gate, if it isn't the film itself, must be a problem within the gate/pressure plate. Or, I have been reliably informed, over cleaning can cause these sort of problem's as well.

In my case it was the main gate backplate assembly which, luckily I had replaced by Bill Parsons when he was in business so my Elmo was in the best possible hands.
One thing he did mention was that you can adjust these parts correctly, but if you have a particular film or two which always seem to want to be a little jumpy, when you adjust it for these films the majority of the collection will jump. In other words, the film is likely to be the cause in some cases.

I sent mine to Bill because my up and down movement started with one film which was my 400ft version of Bugsy Malone, it was fine on another projector, but again, as Bill said at the time, no two projectors (of the same model) are the same. After a while I noticed this unsteadiness began to happen to one or two other titles which I knew to be fine, I was never going to attempt playing with the gate and pressure pad, that would be the end of the projector if I even tried it. The adjustments are far too fine for anyone who doesn't knows what their doing to play with as I found out the hard way with one of my 16mm machines. The Elmo projector came back perfect as always. I was very lucky.

As for the balance stripe, this was meant to be for even focus so the film is level on both sides through the gate. To date, I have not had any problems with focus on any of our single track films although they are all flat, no scope prints, that may well make a difference on screen possibly.

BTW, I am not suggesting your problem is in the gate, merely pointing out that is was the cause in my case.

Thanks guys.

My other films run rock-steady so it is probably the film that perhaps wasn't slit correctly causing the sprocket holes to be a hair off. One thing I tried was adjusting the framing to the extreme at both positions to see if the movement stopped, but it did not. Since the claw moves in an arc, the image will usually become steady at one or both of the extremes. The other interesting thing, though, is usually if the sprocket holes are off-center, you will usually get some side-to-side movement as well. I don't get anything other than vertical movement.

BTW, this is on an Elmo ST-1200HD. I don't think that I ever ran it on another projector. Perhaps I should try that.
And as I said, it is very watchable, and only a nit-picky person like myself would be bothered by it.

The focus is perfect despite the fact that it lacks a balance stripe.

I agree that for one film it is not a good idea to attempt to adjust the gate -- the gate is obviously adjusted properly since other films run fine.

I once fixed an insteady image on a Eumig 800 series dual-8 machine by simply replacing the gate, but I did not need to replace the pressure pad. These are removable on the Eumigs since that is how you change gauges, as I am sure most of you know.

I posted in another thread a question about adjusting the gate and/or claw on my Sankyo Dualux 2000H silent projector, but even that is a bit of a risk since Super 8 runs fine and it is only Standard 8mm that has a slightly unsteady image. If anyone knows a relatively easy way to make an adjustment on that machine, I would appreciate it.

It could also be the fact that the film is slightly wider than usual, this can happen when slitting the film from the 16mm side by side printing, you can always run your films through an equaliser which will trim any excess from any 8mm print, I had a copy of "Supergirl" many years back that needed the treatment, I gave it to David Locke who corrected it for me.

I never knew you could get that done Barry. I wondwr if thats the problem with my 400ft bugsy print.

Quote: Barry Attwood wrote in post #5

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It could also be the fact that the film is slightly wider than usual, this can happen when slitting the film from the 16mm side by side printing, you can always run your films through an equaliser which will trim any excess from any 8mm print, I had a copy of "Supergirl" many years back that needed the treatment, I gave it to David Locke who corrected it for me.

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Tom,

I've actually got an Equaliser in stock, all you need is a pair of rewind arms, a bit of wood to screw the equaliser too, then run your print through it, it trims any excess, it was made here in the U.K. back in the day.

Quote: Barry Attwood wrote in post #8

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Tom,

I've actually got an Equaliser in stock, all you need is a pair of rewind arms, a bit of wood to screw the equaliser too, then run your print through it, it trims any excess, it was made here in the U.K. back in the day.

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Barry,
I reckon you shoul look after that one. It would get very little use if I had it.

Interesting that Bugsy Malone with was a Walton release as a 400ft. My print of Holy Grail was like that, one edge was very rough too as though the slitter needed sharping.

Barry, could be a service for you to provide here.

The Holy grail is an interesting one, we have both parts but the first part is low fade and very good, but part two, (and every copy I have found of part 2) has fade which is a pain in the butt. I would have thought the second part, being released later, would all have been on low fade. For Walton films, we have been fairly lucky as only a small handful over the years had fade, the majority seemed to be on low fade Fuji or Agfa stock.