Thanks Patrick, & Hi (CPIT)
We had a mutual friend (on course) living at 75 Pages Rd, an address I pass frequently on my way into town. What is he up to now?
There is a very wide range of product available from all kinds of manufacturers. The key factors influencing price will be the power output and type of lens you require. The power rating you need is influenced by the projection distance and lighting conditions. Lens is depending on the projection distance. If you are projecting to a maximum of say 5 metres and the room can be darkened a little or sun can be stopped from shining on the screen then approx 1200 lumens would be a good starting figure. A projector to these specs cost about $4000 12 months ago, I expect prices have dropped since then. Look for higher contrast ratios when shopping for projectors.
Do you mean lower contrast ratios e.g. 400:1 XGA resolution, as per your link below, when comparing brands/price?
I'll check out an instore sale tomorrow most likely, for some demos & reference knowledge.
The cheaper ones usually have lesser contrast ratios. Someone correct me here but I presume that the constrast ratio affects the ability of the unit to render subtle colour variations accurately. I have heard so many times from people that their powerpoint or whatever looked alright on the monitor but when they came to project it, the lighter colours were washed out. About all the advice that can be given is to use strongly contrasting colours.
The cheap Mitsubishi we looked at was the SL4U, which BDT shows at $3499. I remember the Warehouse had a small Sanyo at $1999 recently, although it had the right features, its light output seemed quite feeble. The Sanyo business projectors are quite good.
