My local photography club is starting to use digital projection. Our first shot at this leaves me with a couple of questions.
Is a screen made for slide projection suitable for digital projection?
Are low-end digital projectors able to be calibrated?
Pete D.
Posted by Toni Lankerd on March 17, 2009 at 10:28 AM
Pete,
We are using the same screen for slides and digital images in our camera club, so I don't know if there are different screens available or not. As for the digital projector...don't go for the low-end models. Our club has one and it has been nothing but one big headache in competitions. Get the best one your club can afford! We are (finally!!) about to empty our treasury for a new and better one.
Posted by Howard Cihak on March 17, 2009 at 12:30 PM
There are basically two kinds of screen surfaces, matte white and a gray surface that increases contrast. If your projector is going to be used in a lighted room, contrast will be lost due to the extraneous illumination. That's where the gray screen could be an advantage.
We did some extensive testing of projectors here a year or so ago.
Every projector has different preset "modes" that are intended for different viewing environments. These modes have a direct relationship to the size of the color gamut. If you select a "movie" or "theater" mode, you will get the largest gamut and the most saturation out of the projector. Oftentimes, this greater gamut comes at the cost of brightness. Modes like PC or Presentation give a smaller gamut, but sometimes are also brighter.
In most cases you should stay away from DLP projectors as they will be bright, but at an extreme loss of color gamut.
You can profile a projector if it is run through a computer, since it is the computer's graphics card that handles the color adjustment. If you have a ColorMunki, or an i1 Pro with a beamer software module, these will make projector profiles. It is also possible to make a projector profile using an ordinary colorimeter. Ideally, this profiling should be done using the same screen you will be projecting on.
Discussion
3 repliesIs a screen made for slide projection suitable for digital projection?
Are low-end digital projectors able to be calibrated?
Pete D.
We are using the same screen for slides and digital images in our camera club, so I don't know if there are different screens available or not. As for the digital projector...don't go for the low-end models. Our club has one and it has been nothing but one big headache in competitions. Get the best one your club can afford! We are (finally!!) about to empty our treasury for a new and better one.
Howard Cihak
Alexandria, VA
Every projector has different preset "modes" that are intended for different viewing environments. These modes have a direct relationship to the size of the color gamut. If you select a "movie" or "theater" mode, you will get the largest gamut and the most saturation out of the projector. Oftentimes, this greater gamut comes at the cost of brightness. Modes like PC or Presentation give a smaller gamut, but sometimes are also brighter.
In most cases you should stay away from DLP projectors as they will be bright, but at an extreme loss of color gamut.
You can profile a projector if it is run through a computer, since it is the computer's graphics card that handles the color adjustment. If you have a ColorMunki, or an i1 Pro with a beamer software module, these will make projector profiles. It is also possible to make a projector profile using an ordinary colorimeter. Ideally, this profiling should be done using the same screen you will be projecting on.
Patrick Herold
Tech Support, www.chromix.com