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Evening,
Hot on the heels of the projector for movies thread, please may I have your advice and opinions on a portable projector for business use?
It needs to be the moon on a stick obviously, but my intended use is small group (up to 20) software demos and presenting. Unlikely to use video, but may point it at the living room wall on occasion (audio out is pretty low on the list of wants). Small and light is important, bright is assumed to be a good thing. Around £500 max budget, but don't have to spend it all.
I think the best I can find is the optoma ml750st.
Anyone used one?
Can you recommend better?
Am I right in thinking that the short throw will help with brightness, because of the inverse square thing that I should have paid more attention to at school?
"The ML750ST boosts an impressive 700 ANSI lumens,"
Putting the word 'impressive' in a sentence doesn't make 700 lumens very bright. I'd make 1500 lumens you're bare minimum.
You're qualities to balance are brightness - aim for about 2000 lumens or more, contrast (4000:1 or better) and resolution. With the latter make sure the resolution quoted in any spec is the actual output not the inputs it'll accept.
For data projection purpose look up the resolution of the projector you fancy then set your laptop screen to that res - see what you're presentations will look like and if you'll have the room on the screen to do what you want to do.
Am I right in thinking that the short throw will help with brightness
making your image smaller - either by zooming or physically placing the projector closer to the wall will make the most of the brightness, but sort of negates the point of projecting it - but a 'short throw' projector usually refers to a very wide angle lens - so thats a big image from a short distance - it will be no more or less bright than the same size image from further away
Thanks, I do get your point about brightness, but I am starting to think that bright and portable are an impossible combination. It would seem that the lumen claims are somewhat related to the last set of lights I bought (i.e. entirely open to interpretation)
I've been mainly looking at the LED ones - thinking being that actual lamps and travel aren't a great mix.
Good shout on the laptop res test too.
Quick follow up - I did get the ML75ST and it is ideal (for me at least). Tiny, bright enough 100" diagonal image from 2 m away (wholly inconsistent units batman!).
Tested at home on a darkish coloured wall in normal daylight is totally readable, so perfect for small groups/boardroom type presentations. Goodness knows what 2000 lumens would look like.
Also might work at a push for portable home cinema (temporarily) - fans a wee bit noisy and the speaker is next to useless, but can play direct from sd if that sort of thing floats your boat.