Skip to main content

2026-07-02 ELMO ST-600 2-Track 8mm sound projector


I recently received three items that obviously worked together. It was a sound movie camera, an editor/splicer and a ELMO ST-600 2-Track 8mm sound projector. It is more accurately described as a Super8 Sound projector.


The projector has a flexible plastic dust cover. This is stored separately in the box, here shown installed.


    And finally here we have the projector. It has autothreading with you inserting the film in that upper right olive coloured assembly. The film will chatter along and eventually emerge out past the upper left roller.

The take up reel is 400 foot, the largest that can fit on the machine.











    The white transport switch has direction forward and backwards with a final position that switches on the lamp. Above it there is a VU meter with a red record button. In between there is a switch for silent and sound movies.












    To the right there is a switch for main track (track 1) left, both tracks and to the right track 2. Below is a volume knob.















    In the middle of the machine there is a zoom knob and below it a frame and loop restore lever. 
    On the front there is a trimmer for the film leader. Above that is the zoom lens and above that the slot you shove the leader into so the projector can autothread.















    The back has the speaker, a vent, a place to set the voltage and below that the AC plug. The projector did not include the cord in the box.

    The opposite end from the projector’s lens has the sound controls that didn’t fit on the front. There are two frames-per-second speeds. Super8 used 18 frames a second for silent and sound. Possibly 24-frames was for commercially released films as 24-frames per second was the 16mm frame speed for sound films.











    The bottom of the machine has twin feet about a third of the way in from the back and a single adjustable wheel foot at the front (to the right).


    If you take the cover off the front to get to see how complicated a self-threading projector can be. When you add a swing-open gate and a sound assembly (towards the middle down) there is a lot going on.


    But then you can remove the cover for the projection bulb and expose more.
    I did manage to find an AC-cord that would power the projector up. The lamp lights, but when placed in the run position nothing moves and the shutter doesn’t flash the light on the wall. I looked on the internet and found a video on how to build up your own flywheel rubber surface. Like other projectors I have looked inside this projector has a single motor to power the cooling fan, the shutter, the advance mechanism and possibly the rewind. This is usually achieved by using multiple belts.
In this machine they have a large flywheel to make the sound drum steady.                   Needless to say it takes some real skills to repair a projector this complicated. I found the case is sealed with a rubber gasket that seems glued in place, so I left it alone. 
The belts appear to be available on line.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2026-03-14 - History and Evolution of the Kodak Logo

  While working as a junior clerk at the Rochester Savings Bank, George Eastman first began commercial production of dry photographic plates in a rented loft of a building in Rochester, New York in April 1880. In the next few years, Eastman became very successful and expanded the company several times. His company started as the Eastman Dry Plate Company in 1881, later became the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company in 1884, and soon after the Eastman Company in 1889. The last name change occurred in 1892, when the Eastman Kodak Company of New York was organized. The company has been called Eastman Kodak Company ever since.  The word "Kodak" was first registered as a trademark in 1888. The letter “K” had been a favorite of Eastman’s, he is quoted as saying, "I devised the name myself. The letter 'K' had been a favorite with me; it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter. It became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made word...
Post a Comment
Read more

2026-03-20-Manfrotto monopods

  Sometimes collecting is a matter of persistence.       The Manfrotto “GRUPPO” 434SSB monopod (shown top) showed up one day at my local thrift store. They had a price tag of $25 on it. I had bought the lower Manfrotto Compact MMC3-01 monopod at the same thrift store for $3. So I asked, “Why so much?” They answered their “expert” had found it sold for $200 on the internet. I find experts—who almost never clerk in the thrift store, so are unreachable—hard to deal with. There is also the matter someone might actually pay them $25 for a 2.27 kg (5 pound) aluminum pole, so I decided to let the Gods-of-Collecting decide if I was going to ever own it. For weeks I would pick it up, check the price tag to see if they had come to their senses, and return it to the shelf. I did try various clerks to see if they would lower the price, but they said they were not authorized to change prices. I plodded on, week after week without much hope.         ...
Post a Comment
Read more

2026-06-23 Olympus Camedia D-535 Digital Camera

The Olympus Camedia D-535 digital camera is a cute little camera, introduced September 16, 2004. It was modestly priced at about $175 list.   It had the motto, “one button/one function.” There were four scene modes available, as well as movies (QuickTime / 320x240 at 15 fps for as long as the memory held out) and “Program-Auto” on the rotary dial. A four direction with a center “OK” allowed rapid access to (starting at 12 and going clockwise)— EV adjustments plus and minus 2EV in ½ EV steps Macro (including Super-Macro allowing shooting down to 2 cm (0.79”) Reset Self-timer (12 seconds)      The three buttons under the 1.5 inch (130,000 dot) screen (from left) are delete, menu access and flash modes. The two buttons to the right of the screen are camera (top) and playback. There is a rocker switch for zooming that doubles as a magnification /file views switch on playback. The power-on button is inset into the top at the middle of the camera, with the shutter button ...
Post a Comment
Read more