When it comes to having skilled and caring people in the booth, you get what you pay for. Replacing dropped lenses, ruined prints, and prematurely blown lamps can quickly add up to much more than paying enough to retain good people. The "bean counters" just don't get it!

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

>>"It was an absolute pain in the Ass! The operators in the booth hate them, and the chain owners have already confirmed that they will never do it again. Lens center lines are difficult to match up from scope to flat even with high quality lenses and good adaptor bushings."<<

Steve sez:

If your single lens holders have the middle of the lens pointed at the center of the film and you lens adapters are also true...just how can the picture centers be different? It just aint possible! If your flat and scope pictures have different centers than your lens receivers are not centered with respect to picture center (chuck up your laser pointing back towards the film...lace up 35-PA and see if you are centered. If not, adjusting the upper lens guide can normally bring it to center. The rest is up to your lens adapter...if they are of the current type...they tend to be very uniform from unit to unit.

[added 7/7/01]

If all of that sounds too hard...then get one PC-Cine adapter. Both Schneider and ISCO have them. Schneider is currently working on one that will take 70.6mm dia. lenses that lets one adjust on one plane only.

Install the Scope lens in a regular lens adapter, point the machine for perfect center, install the FLAT lens in the PC-Cine adapter and adjust for perfect match.

[end of addition]

Again, single lens is about 95% of what I install...pain in the ass is not the way I would describe them...easy install is more like it! No double aperture plates either (the aperture changer is yet one more thing that goes out alignment).

I am surprised though...in over 20 years of dealing with single lens projectors...I can't remember the last dropped lens I heard about in my area...there may have been one or two but that is about it. I certainly acknowledge that the likelyhood is MUCH greater with single lens over turret....Oh wait...I remember the last dropped lens I remember...it was in the mid '80s and it WAS on a turret...I seems that someone took a Kollmorgan prime lens and screwed a Schneider anamorphic on it (those in the know will understand that the thread pitch of these two don't match)...any who...when the turret was rotated one day...."CRASH" the attachment hit the cement floor and killed it pretty good (dented the case and cracked the elements!)

I'll stand by that as an installer, I'd much rather install single lens over turrets...as an operator, "I" would demand single lens over turrets...as a dealer "Whatcha want?"

Steve

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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"

John,
Unfortunately the glory days of having expert booth personel has ended in most of the world, I side with you that the bean counters don't even have a clue about it. It should be the other way around.....there should be no expert bean counters and good booth personel.
Mark @ GTS

Unfortunately, those personnel who drop lenses have several thoughts in their mind. Some are:
1. "I don't care - it is not my property."
2. "Tough ****."
3. They have no idea of what they are fooling around with.

I could go on and on...

I haven't had the problem you are talking about with a lens per-say but lens adapters, sure. I would suspect one of the lens manufacturers to have more problems with this than the other. Even in focal lengths, one of the lens manufacturers thends to be more wild on the actual focal length from unit to unit. One of the manufacturers also can't seem to get their scope lens to be 2:1 expansion, more often than not it is wider than that!! If you check out my South Branch 6 photos in the "pictures" section, you will see that they are in single lens holders (the Kinoton way)...I used a mixture of Schneider and ISCO lenses...amazingly, they all centered up just fine! I also haven't heard one complaint about switching lenses/plates nor any problem of the pictures coming off center.

But back to your statement...fine, install the scope lens and point it at the screen for perfect center....install the flat lens in a PC-cine adapter and adjust for a perfect match...no lens turret same effect, much cheaper than retrofitting the turret. Heck with the cost savings, you could be buying a few spare lenses and some cabinets to hold the lenses....booth idiots aside.

From what you described, you were essentially putting in a system on the cheap...used projectors, used and not perfectly round adapters and used, less that state-of-the-art lenses. Sounds to me like the whole installation was allowed to be compromised to some level in the name of saving money...so what's the problem with shaving a little on the picture too...there is an allowable crop factor (10%) anyway.

I think we are just going to have to disagree on this one, my findings don't support yours.

Steve

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In case any of my comments were inferred to reflect on Mark's ability to install or rebuild equipment...Quite the contrary, I have heard nothing but praise from his work and from what I have seen, there is no reason for me to think otherwise.

This is merely a discussion and expression of differences of opinions and findings...there is no absolute right or wrong here.

Steve

I'm sure Mark's rebuilds are every bit as good as our techs. I didn't draw any conclusions from your pervious comments that they were not. I was only commenting on how pleased we were with the Kelmar turretts.

Incidently, I was skeptical about turretts and always favored single
lens installations until I encountered the Kelmars. So far, I'm impressed with them.

No offense taken, and keep "um happy down there on the Cheasapeake.