Leitz Pradovit projector

ChrisR

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I found my old one of these, and had the idea of taking it to my local camera group, and comparing "proper" slide projection of a few slides with digital projection of the scanned version. Unfortunately, It doesn't work when I apply electricity. No signs of life at all. I might be able to debug it, probably with a bit of effort and expense, but it's not worth it for the projected use ( :) ). In the last thread on this, Brian mentioned that digi folk sometimes use the lenses. I did wonder whether the lens might be of interest to the LF folk on here. It's a Leitz Wetzlar Colorplan 90mm 1:2.5, looks uncoated to me. Dates from the 70s, probably about when it was last used, too. They seem to go for a tenner or so on the evil bay, unless tested or refurbished.

Any ideas what I can do with it? Apparently weighs 8 kg! It has to go...
 
I found my old one of these, and had the idea of taking it to my local camera group, and comparing "proper" slide projection of a few slides with digital projection of the scanned version. Unfortunately, It doesn't work when I apply electricity. No signs of life at all. I might be able to debug it, probably with a bit of effort and expense, but it's not worth it for the projected use ( :) ). In the last thread on this, Brian mentioned that digi folk sometimes use the lenses. I did wonder whether the lens might be of interest to the LF folk on here. It's a Leitz Wetzlar Colorplan 90mm 1:2.5, looks uncoated to me. Dates from the 70s, probably about when it was last used, too. They seem to go for a tenner or so on the evil bay, unless tested or refurbished.

Any ideas what I can do with it? Apparently weighs 8 kg! It has to go...
8kg, that's huge!
 
Gotta assume it has a transformer in it for 8kg, maybe the lamp isn't 230v, although sometimes they have big lumps of glass in them like condensers.

*translates poncey bits*


Debug = Mend
Apply electricity = Plug it in

:D
 
8kg, that's huge!

TBH I didn't weigh it, took the figure from a fleabay post. But it's certainly heavy. And yes John, it has a transformer in it.

BTW I plugged it in AND switched on all the bits I could see with switches!
 
Might be worth a quick look to see if you can find a dry or broken solder joint.

Any fuses anywhere?
 
Just as an aside, that Colorplan 90mm f2.5 lens is widely regarded as a cracker...I have one on my Pradovit :)
 
Might be worth a quick look to see if you can find a dry or broken solder joint.

Any fuses anywhere?

My expertise these days is pretty much limited to plugging it in and turning it on!

Just as an aside, that Colorplan 90mm f2.5 lens is widely regarded as a cracker...I have one on my Pradovit :)

And I realised that not being able to see any coating on the outside means nothing, as presumably the coating would be on the side the light comes from, the inside!

No-one seems interested in re-purposing it however. It does of course have a focus helicoid, but I'm not clear how useful that would be when working the other way round...
 
If you want rid of it, and are ok with boxing it up, I can try to arrange for a courier collection.
 
If you want rid of it, and are ok with boxing it up, I can try to arrange for a courier collection.

It is all boxed up in original packaging, with instructions... perhaps I'd better put it in the classifieds as a freeby.
 
Obvious question, but, did you check the fuse in the mains plug? :)
 
It was a sealed plug (Australian style, via an adapter), but no. I know, I know, I should really do more debugging!

Among other things, the lack of a slide cartridge is a disincentive. I'm sure there is one around the house somewhere, but no idea where. It's not near the slides, that's for sure!
 
Now posted to @robhooley167 as per classifieds thread. Do let us know whether you can either make it work, or use the lens, Rob!

(BTW I noticed on the side of the box a list of the projector lenses that were available. My Colorplan was about 3rd from the cheapest, I think, with another 4 or 5 to go above that.)

It looks like the plan with the U3A 'tog group may go ahead with some else's projector.
 
I still use my Dad's old Hanimex La Ronde Super Auto projector from the early 1960's. Built like a tank and it's still going strong, apart from the rubber drive belt for the slide changer mechanism has snapped, so it's manual change till I can find a replacement!
 
Well I bought a Voightlander Perkeo with two lenses at the bootie a few months ago for a fiver thinking the lenses would fetch a good price, but they are only going for £5-£10...all seems to be working and would use it to see if the lenses are better than my Kodak Carousel but haven't got a slide holder :(
 
So we had the U3A tog group meeting today, where we compared projected versus scanned and projected slides. What a faff! The first projector didn't work, diagnosed as a blown bulb. Search for screwdriver, 5 minutes of fiddling, eventually turn it on again, still no light. By this time we'd pre-loaded the slides in the cartridge. Another member had an old Hanimex (?) slide projector in her car, fetched that and it was working, but a completely different cartridge and the changer wouldn't work (see above). The lens must have been a much longer focal length, so the image was much smaller than the digital projection, but despite that much dimmer, more yellow and less sharp.

On all the slides bar one the digital scans won hands down. The exception (which was still better overall) had better detail on some leaves in the shadow area. Colour was generally better on the scanned slides. Dust, hair and other artefacts were very visible on the directly projected slides.

The received wisdom AFIK was that shadow areas would open up with all that light blasting through, and that by contrast most desktop scanners were not able to see anything there. Apart from the one slide we didn't see evidence of that.

I think this result was partly because the slide projector we eventually used wasn't really up to the job; it seems fair to guess that the Leitz projector would have been better. However, that's gone to a better place in Leeds.

The other lesson was: how much of a faff the whole slide projector business was. As someone said, it was a real test of friendship when you invited someone round for a slide evening!
 
The worst bit for me was having to stop every 40 slides or so to re-load the slide holder magazine, tuning on the lights to do this usually made everyone blink and in the rush to get going again it was almost certain that at least one slide would have been put in the wrong way up! Happy days!
 
Yes, by the time the slides had been loaded into the second magazine, they were all the wrong way round, so we had to flip the scanned images to compare!
 
:facepalm: Slideshow muppetry! :LOL: I wish I'd been there to whistle the Laurel and Hardy signature tune! :D
 
My Kodak Carousel is a good design with a rotating drum that holds 80 slides...just put the slides in upside down and the hardest bit was getting the horizontal right and was time consuming looking through a loupe to get it right.....incidentally someone mentioned that they didn't like Kodachrome cardboard slides, well I think they changed to plastic mounts sometime? and the plastic ones annoyed me because the date was stamped on the cardboard ones but not on the plastic ones. :(
 
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My Kodachrome and Ektachrome cardboard mounts are nearly all in excellent condition; the plastic ones (Fuji and Agfa?) are hopeless and simply fall open letting the frame fall out onto the floor!
 
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