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This is a rare gem. Pulled from a working installation at a major college, this project and the accompanying Super Lume-x Xenon Lamp by Strong Electric with 126 hours, as well as the power source for the lamp, and the original Eastman Kodak lens the external extender. Lamp runs on 220/240 volt. If you want to buy JUST the projector or JUST the lamp and power source please contact me. Price is set as follows: $3000.00 for the projector and lens and $1000.00 for the Super Lume-X Lamp and Power Supply, so the total asking is $4000.00 but this CAN be parted out. This whole setup is READY to run any 16mm film. This is an original model 25 -- the gold standard for original 16mm theatrical projection. LOCAL PICKUP IS FREE!
The Eastman 25, introduced in March 1950 for $3,675, constituted the film part of an early film chain—station speak for a film projector aimed at a television camera, transmitting the content direct-to-air. In the video age, the film chain principle was adapted into the telecine, later the datacine and the high-resolution film scanners used for transfer today.
If your experience of 16mm projection is limited to portable machines, the Eastman 25 is a quiet revelation. To be sure, 16mm was predominantly shown on table-top set-ups—in classrooms, churches, union halls, camp sites, army bases, etc. The equipment was made to match—relatively light-weight, replete with plastic rollers, often slot-loaded or almost-fully automated. Bell & Howells, Elmos, Eikis, and their imitators had to be loaded on A/V carts and transported through hospital corridors and factory floors—a roving educational unit.
The Eastman 25 is totally different, and a fitting subject for historical archaeology. Every part is metal. Nothing in its threading path is automated or hidden behind a faceplate. It is imposingly permanent, with a footprint as large as many 35mm models. Indeed, it even includes features—such as the lever to lock the focus knob—that would be very useful in, but are often omitted from, 35mm machines. And in a way, this makes sense: though the limitations of transmission equipment and home sets were formidable, each 16mm television projection commanded a larger audience than most any auditorium presentation in either gauge.
In other words, the Eastman 25 is an industrial strength 16mm projector meant to run film every hour of every day for years and years. Though the Eastman 25 was designed squarely for television use, its robust excellence later made it a very attractive model for repertory houses, cinematheques, laboratories, and other institutions that required a permanent and reliable 16mm installation.
In an age when business increasingly turns to consumer hardware and forgoes the proven durability of wholly mechanical equipment, operating an Eastman 25 still feels like a rare privilege.
Booths currently using this projector:
Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY
Black Cinema House, Chicago, IL
Doc Films at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Indiana University at Bloomington Moving Image Archive, Bloomington, IN
Music Box Theatre, Chicago, IL
Capitol Theater, Olympia, WA
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation screening rooms
Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL
Shotgun Cinema, New Orleans, LA
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