EUMIG 824D SONOMATIC
(All 8mm gauges sound and silent)
Eumig proudly announced the arrival of this top machine with great acclaim ‘A projector in the highest class for all 8mm gauges’ and upon arrival it did not disappoint.
The 824D was to mark the end of the vast 800 series of sound projectors and at the time I remember feeling rather sad to see this particular range come to an end as it was really popular around the cine circuit for film makers and home projectionists, not least because the 824D had a new colour scheme, improved design and was pretty sexy to look at. It was the heaviest of the range weighing in at 8.5kg and also sported some heavy duty features including a frame counter, built in film trimmer, 15 watt amplification with 22 transistors, VU meter, tone control, twin track recording, a highly rated Suprogon f/1,2 zoom lens and extended frequency response of 75-12,000Hz.
This machine built still further on Eumig pedigree of solid construction and reliability and it did not disappoint the user. It topped the range even offering public address facility, high low lamp switching and the all important manual record level control for perfect recording of sound. Spool size was limited to 600ft spools which was an issue in the 80’s as we all craved 1200ft capacity for our lengthy shows. These days 600ft seems to be enough as the trend does seem to be to leave feature films in original boxes and on original 600ft reels. Company’s such as Spondon came to the rescue and produced long play units ideal for this machine and these were in use quite happily with the 824D machines I seem to remember.
The Eumig ‘Sonomatic’ sound recording system was a way of automatically fading in and out at a exact point in your home movie even to the exact frame. The system of editing or recording sound was proving so popular then that books were even produced to help you create what could have been the perfect sound track utilising Sonomatic. (Look out for the Max Abegg book ‘Supreme sound movie fun with Sonomatic’)
This machine has the 12volt 100watt lamp and a quality lens which projects a crisp image in either super 8 or standard 8mm. The largest Std 8 image I have projected would be 8ft, 10ft with Super 8 and using the internal amplification through an external Tannoy loud speaker with very good results. Images are steady and projecting either gauges with cement or tape spices are no problem to the 824D, providing splices are well made obviously as with all films.
Eumig machines had a very good and solid paint job and this one is easy to spot as the majority of the 824D is black. Once again they came in two incarnations which are easy to distinguish as follows. The first batch were with a higher gloss rear bodywork and the later versions were very close to a matt black, so if you start to look for this projector it is worth sticking to the less glossy rear finish as it will be of more recent construction. All in all then a desirable machine which only had one shortcoming that being the focus pin. For some reason Eumig at the last minute changed the type used on the 824D moving the locating pin onto the lens which does wear down if previous owners have been a bit heavy handed so worth watching out for worn lenses.
History says that these are one hell of a work horse machine and yes they in the main do seem to go forever. They are relatively simple to use and changing from 8mm to super 8mm is just a simple swap over of gates and sprockets. Removing the gate makes for very easy cleaning in the palm of your hand and I have found this particular model to be simply excellent in both audio playback and recording of sound. It’s a quick flick of a switch to get from 18 to 24fps and speeds in-between as well. Eumig came of age when the produced this model and I believe the name ‘High Quality Sound’ was fully justified shown on the front of the machine and a worthy ‘all gauge’ sound cine projector.
Main Spec
Lens as standard f/1,2 12.5-25mm multicoated
12v 100w lamp
18 to 24fps
600ft spool capacity
15 Watts audio output
Tone,Volume,Rec controls
Audio VU Meter