35!70 mag penthouse

[Phil Housh]

Looking for guidance or opinions about either removing or keeping two mag 35/70 penthouses. We are currently receiving our 70mm Simplex XL 35/70 projectors. Is it worth keeping the mag penthouses or remove them? Are 70mm mag prints still viable or are the no longer available? What's everyone's opinion.

Thanks,
phoushp@netscape.net

[Tj Hopland]

Do you have the rest of the equipment and tools to support mag? Clusters in good condition, probably Tecons? Preamp with enough modules? Processor with the proper modules? Gaussmeter for testing for rouge magnetic fields that will damage tracks and various degaussing coils to clean up any issues you find which you for sure will on an XL? Then you need other things like test loops and other test equipment.

If you don't have all that stuff the shelf would probably be a good place for the penthouses. Having a shorter stack on top is a good thing for many reasons. The digital readers can have issues when the offset gets high and the longer film path can introduce bounce and both of those could cause dropouts. Its also nice if you don't have to lift a full reel as high.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Phil,
I'd remove them if they are not already wired in to a mag preamp, but definately keep them. Any mag prints you run today are going to be either archival, or from a collector. So your chances of needing Mag are pretty slim. It will also be easier to mount the DTS readers and properly align them...
BTW, I'm amazed the CP-500 there is still functioning. It went in way back during the theater restoration in 1999.