Okay group, I need some advice about choosing the right slide projector
to do justice to my images taken with Olympus/Zuiko gear. What I'm
looking for is an affordable unit, affordable like toyota vs mercedes.
Remote control, auto-focus not a nessecity.
Here are my questions:
Projector manufacturer?
I'm leaning toward Kodak or Kinderman, Leica being too pricey.
Lens Type?
Fixed length or zoom?
From my research zooms seem to be poorer performers.
What focal length?
I would be viewing images from about 12-18 feet away.
Lens Manufacturer?
My research seems to indicate that I should stay away from Kodak lenses.
What about Buhl, Schnieder or Rollei?
Suggestions, comments, opinions or any other advice is welcome.
Charles Packard
Jest thankful to be alive, healthy and not in trouble with the gummit.
I have a Leitz projector with ColorPlan 90 mm lens which is a nice
length for a decent sized living room. I bought it when I still had
a Leica and I saw slides stunningly projected at a Leica seminar to
about 10 x 15 feet on a very flat matte screen with Leitz projector
and lens.
I have projected my slides side by side with a friend on a 60 x 60
inch window shade type matte screen in a large living room with a
Kodak projector with a Kodak lens with no significant difference in
the projected images between the two projectors.
What is really significant is how well the feed works, how easy it is
to prepare the slides for projection(load the box), how easy it is to
re-orient slides that somehow have gotten into the slide box wrong,
how well the autofocus works. I know you said autofocus was not
important to you, but it is to your audience. You will lose them
about the third time that you screw the focus back and forth and they
will be making plans on how to determine whether you are going to be
there next time they accept an invitation.
One of the reasons I bought the Leitz was that in a Popular
Photography article at the time they measured the film gate
temperatures of a bunch of projectors and the temp in the Leitz was
the lowest. At that time it was thought that projection temperature
was related to longevity of the slides. Since then, I think, the
consensus is that slide fading during projection is related to how
much light is being pushed through the slide not especially the
temperature. That becomes another argument for autofocus which is
generally faster than manual focus.
Unless you mount your slides in glass get a curved field lens because
the slide becomes curved in the heat from the projection lamp. I
have an innate prejudice against unreviewed zoom lenses. I think
that the dogs out there far outnumber the really good lenses. Even
though it is easier to plunk down your screen and your projection
table and adjust the image size by zooming, your image is generally
going to be dimmer, less contrasty, less sharp and more prone to
lens aberrations.
Another consideration is the slide holder. European projectors use
European trays which work great, but are expensive as hell in the US.
Because leaving a set up slide show in the tray is such a temptation
because of the loading time, cost is a real consideration. Kodak also
has a handy dandy little gadget that holds a box of slides without
having to load them singly into a carousel.
If it were me I would go with the Kodak, maybe an Ektagraphic model,
if durability is a consideration. It has become a standard for
professional slide shows. They are used, automatically run by
computers hour after hour, in displays in museums across the US. If
something happens to it, repair facilities and parts can be found for
it. I cannot remember exactly how much it cost to fix the autofocus
on my Leitz once I finally found someone who could repair it and get
the parts, but it was about half the cost of the projector ony 2
years after I had bought it. Kodak used to have two different
quality levels for their lenses. I would get the better grade lens in
a single focal length of about 80 or 90 cm.
My 2 cents.
Winsor
--
Winsor Crosby
Long Beach, California, USA
mailto:wincros@xxxxxxxxxxx
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