This page illustrates 35mm slide projectors branded ILFORD and sold to compliment the ILFORD Sportsman camera range which went on sale from 1957.

From the mid-1960s to the end of 1969, Ilford acted as UK distributor for a range of equipment from the Elmo Company Ltd, Japan. Mostly this range consisted of cine cameras and projectors, but included at least one 35mm still slide projector, the Ilford Elmo CS. See it on my Ilford Elmo web page.

The British Photographic Journal Almanac for 1958 (hence, referring to newly arrived 1957 equipment) contains one of the first Ilford adverts for its (1957) Sportsman camera together with a 35mm slide projector, also named the Sportsman. Modern Camera Magazine reviews the P36 Sportsman Portable Projector in their April 1957 issue. They gave its measurements when closed for travelling, with leads tucked inside, as only 8ins (200mm) by 6ins (150mm) by 3ins (75mm). In 1957 it was priced at £12.3.9d (£12.19p) including a lamp.

The description applied by Ilford to the compact Sportsman projector can be read in the BJPA advert, alongside.
Modern Camera's review text can be read below. They were impressed with it.

The Sportsman camera and slide projector complimented Ilfords colour transparency film Type 'D' (introduced 1948) and Type 'F' (introduced 1956).

Left is shown the Sportsman Projector with its sprung side doors hinged back, its detachable slide carrier in position and with two 35mm slides inserted. The 85mm focal length lens gives a 3feet wide picture (0.9m) at 9ft from the screen (2.75m), making it suitable for domestic use.

Projector Made in Italy,
as stated on the side of the Ilford Sportsman box.

Also, see the Sportsman labels below.

This example, sold on ebay, has a logo plate on the side door and also a label on the back. Notice how the inside slides out at the back for cleaning and bulb changing. Also, notice the air vents for natural convection cooling (no fan).

The labels shown left and below are mssing from the projector shown above.

Close ups of these two labels are shown here. Notice that the Sportsman projector was Made in Italy, whereas the Sportsman camera was made in West Germany. The 'Made in Italy' information also appears on the box (above).

The Sportsview 35mm slide projector was first marketed in late 1961, perhaps in time for Christmas purchases (the instruction booklet is code dated November 1961 - J.61) and was much more sophisticated than the portable Sportsman projector (above). The Sportsview uses a DIN standard 2x2" (4x4cm) slide magazine (the one supplied holds 30 slides) and has a high light intensity A1/182 (150watt 240volt) projection lamp, convection cooled by natural (no fan) through-flow air movement. Once the slides had been arranged into the magazine and the magazine had been inserted into the channel within the projector body, slides were changed using a simple push-pull manual autochange lever.

The Sportsview was produced in Western Germany by the Dacora company, run by Herr Dangelmaier, the same company which produced the Sportsman cameras for Ilford. It was reviewed in 'Colour Photography' magazine, January 1963 issue. The review model is described as having an attractive silver-grey finish, with red and black trim, as in the main illustrations below. The 'Colour Photography' reviewer criticised it for its noisy slide change-over 'clank-clonk' but concluded "this minor point does not affect the good value, at £19.7s.6d (£19.38p).

The lens is a f2.8 85mm Rodenstock Splendar, claimed to give a picture 3feet (0.9m) wide from a 35mm transparency at an approximate projection distance of 8feet (2.5m).

The black thumbwheel visible on the left of the top plate (as viewed from the front) is the fine focus adjustment. The thumbwheel was set at a mid-point before starting a slide show and initially the projector was focussed using the front helical screw thread lens mount. During a show, minor focus corrections, as might be required for differing slide mounts or through heat causing the projected slide to 'pop', were carried out using the top mounted thumbwheel.

To the left is shown the slide magazine that was preloaded with up to 30 slides (in the one supplied by Ilford, though capacities up to 50 were available from other manufacturers) before being inserted into the projector's 'tunnel'. The benefit of Ilford's 30 slide length magazine is that it would have fitted neatly within the projector's 'tunnel', so providing a useful storage space, especially if the projector and a set of slides were to be transported to another venue.

Once the slide magazine was inserted into the 'tunnel', the manual push-pull slide change lever would have been used to push the desired slide into the projector's light beam and the lens would then have projected the slide image onto a white surfaced screen (often 40ins x 40ins, approx 1m x 1m, in domestic circumstances). Afterwards, the lever would retract the viewed slide back into the magazine and would have advanced the magazine to the next slide.