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Re: [OM] Slide projector advice

Subject: Re: [OM] Slide projector advice
From: Winsor Crosby <wincros@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2000 13:11:47 -0800
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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