Came home tonight to find not only Stuart’s RPM gadget in the mail (thanks again Stu!) but also a large Parcelforce box containing a fully serviced Eiki Elf NT1, test film and take up spool from a fine gentleman here:


Will have a longer play around with this machine in the weekend but quickly ran some black acetate leader through it and the auto thread worked like a charm. The provided metal take up spool seemed to be gripping the film a little too tightly so I substituted a smaller plastic Cecolite one I had lying around.

At first I thought I saw what looked like a fairly visible scratch on the gate area but running the leader and checking it afterwards, the only scratches noted seemed well into the soundtrack or perf area. So I assume it’s a non-issue for now?

I love these Elf's, (also like the B & H but not so easy to service for me),

I like the Cecolite spools; they seem a fraction wider than other brands, so no issue with rubbing. You can of course apply a bit of pressure to a metal reel to widen it a fraction. When you say scratching in the soundtrack or perforation area, do you mean on your leader, because this could be an issue with the optical soundtrack.

After running the leader, I popped it on some rewinds. The leader I have has a somewhat shiny reflective surface on one side so it was easy to notice any marks. I then overlapped a bit of leader snipped off some sound film and noticed the only scratch observed seemed to lie roughly on the boundary of the soundtrack and picture area. I don’t take this as a sign that it would necessarily scratch regular sound film in that region but I guess I’ll find out in the weekend.