Digital Projector

[DavidGee]

I hope this is the correct place to post this.... if not then will the mods please move it to the correct place..... thanks

This is a fact finding type question which hopefully some members can assist in answering.

My photography club's projector used for projected images competitions is nearing its' "life" and there have recently been comments made during some competitions that perhaps what is being projected is not as good as what is being displayed on the laptop to which the projector is attached.
Before you immediately think... "calibration" the projector and the laptop have been calibrated using the club's color munki and the person doing the calibration really knows what he is doing so calibration can be ruled out.

So the questions.....

What brand of projectors are other clubs using, what software are they using to project the images (the software must have the functionality to be able to mark the scores on the images at the time the judge "announces" the score), what is the format of the projectors being used ??

The club has been looking at what local clubs use and they all seem to favor a Canon Projector with prices ranging from a couple of thousand pounds right up to four thousand plus. We are a small club and that sort of money will place a very serious dent in the bank balance.
which leads to the second question...

How do clubs "fund" their projector ???

Really appreciate any assistance....

David

[Geoff F]

I have been looking into this recently for our local History Society.

My research came up with a lot of confusing data but there were some interesting results.

Firstly, Canon projectors were rated as poor and excessively expensive.

Digital projectors have considerably reduced in price recently and you should now be able to get something really good for under £1,000, and probably something which suits you for quite a lot under that figure.

To start with, don't consider anything with a SVGA rating as this is for limited home use.

An internet search will produce a great deal of options but these should be reasonably easily reduced into just a few serious options.

For the history society, where funds are limited, we were looking at something under £400 but even at that price there are some good offers on quality equipment available now.

[Simon Garrett]

Excellent question! It seems to be hard to get good advice. We're also trying to figure out what to do. Some issues we've come across:

• Some competitions (e.g. PAGB) specify that images should be 1440x1050. (Personally I think one shouldn't specify image resolution, but let the software sort it out starting from higher-res images.) However, the high-volume projectors are HD (1920x1080) so those are likely to be best value. Trouble is: at 16:9, you tend to get lots of black space on the side even on landscape pictures.
• Some projectors we've tried have awful colour unless calibrated - use of a hardware calibration tool (ColorMunki, Spyder or whatever) seems to be a must.
• Software - we've been recommended Free Film Projection for club competition use.
• Sources of info I've found: http://www.projectorpoint.co.uk/Came...Projectors.htm, http://www.dpmag.com/hardware/more/t...s.html?start=2, http://www.projectorpeople.com/resou...projection.asp

However, I'm in the market for more advice!

[DavidGee]

Thanks guys for the comments/information.
All our projected images must be 1440x1050 max so another "constraint".
Simon, thanks for the links.
If only there was someone who could comae along to the clubs and say... to achieve that you need this and if you want to lease the projector then here is a leasing company who does good prices for clubs..... oh well an opening for an enterprising person as I am sure that every club is face with this problem.

When we make a decision I will post what we are going to use and why.

Thanks

David

[Shadowman]

Take a look at this thread.

Advice on Video Projector, please.

[Simon Garrett]

All our projected images must be 1440x1050 max so another "constraint".

Yes, we've been told that. I think it's a mistake. I don't mean it isn't a rule - it's definitely in the PAGB rules. I mean that it's not a sensible rule!

Software used to display images is capable of down-sizing on the fly any image to fit within the resolution of the projector (if it isn't, it's pretty hokey software). However, if you manually down-sized to 1440x1050 then any further re-sizing is likely to introduce unpleasant artefacts. So why lock people into a specific projector resolution? Of all the resolutions in current projectors, 1440x1050 is the least likely to be current in a year or two in low-cost models.

The PAGB might want to rethink its rules in the light of best use of the technology.