Computer Projectors - Lumens

[AhMun]

Hi everybody,

I was wondering if anyone had a good explaination of Lumens rating on projectors.

I see a lot of projectors (Infocus, dell, Lumens, etc.) have a 1000 or 1300 lumens rating.

What does that mean? Can I get a laymans description so I can get a feel for how bright a certain rating will be?

Thanks
Ahmun

 

[Mark R]

A lumen is a measure of total light output - presumably for a projector this is the maximum amount of light it can produce. It is not a measure of brightness, as this depends on the area over which the light is projected.

For comparison a typical 100 W mains light bulb produces about 1200 lumens.

When projected onto a screen about 6 feet wide 1000 lumens will produce an image similar in brightness to a typical cinema (possibly brighter).

When I ran a student cinema back at school the projector had about 40,000 lumens, and we had a 30 foot screen. The picture was really good and bright.

Remember though, that you need a lot more light if you want to watch in daylight, or a non-darkened room.