Panasonic Single Chip DLP Lenses

[sleepytom]

Looking into the Panasonic single chip DLP machines as possible replacement options for our existing Sanyo XP projectors. One this which I'm finding confusing is the lens part numbers and compatibility.

With the Sanyo projectors there was always 2 versions (eg xp200 and xp200L) the L version came without a lens where the "normal" version came with a standard sanyo lns-s31. It seems that Panasonic have a similar system, except I cannot see to find out which of their lenses is the "standard" one which get supplied with projectors.

 

Does anyone have the part number for the standard lens? Just to be clear we are looking at the PT-DW730 / PT-DW6300 type of machines.

[AHYoung]

panasonic single chip lenses are slightly confusing,

 

they used to be a dle 100 - 400 for the zooms with a dle 050 the fixed .8. the standard just being a standard , with the introduction of the Hd machines, the range changed to the DLE150 - 450 with the 055 being the wide angle all having the same ratios as the old ones, but being HD ready, all these "fit" the old and new single chip machines, but you will notice that the new lenses are a bit better.The "standard or 1.8~2.4:1 zoom that comes with a machine hasnt got a model number as such and is generally referd to as simply the standard lens and in fact sais so around the front. Panasonic dont even list this lens as being available seperately, as you either by the projector with or without the lens the price difference is around 250.00 so its a fraction of the cost of the other units

 

A sa note ive put the 7k wuxga DZ7700 units into our hire stock and id have to say that I cant fault them and expect to get the same sort of service that we still get out of out 5700s only with a bit more brightness and a lot more pixels. The revelation has also been the DLE 080 lenses which are a 0.8~1.1:1 extreme wide zoom that also allow full lens shift ang have a secondary fine focus. If you regularly use 0.8 lenses you will appreciate what it does...

[Jasonbrownstuff]

hi tom

 

if you see LS after the modal number it means lens less modal

if there is no LS you will get the 1.8-2.4 lens

 

 

lenses as follows

 

for PT-DW6300 & PT-DW730

 

ET-DLE080 - ZOOM LENS 0.9-1:1

ET-DLE150 - ZOOM LENS 1.4-2:1

ET-DLE250 - ZOOM LENS 2.4-3.8:1

ET-DLE350 - ZOOM LENS 3.6-5.4:1

ET-DLE450 - ZOOM LENS 5.6-9:1

ET-DLE055 - ZOOM LENS 0.8:1

 

 

We have some of the above in hire stock 0.8 -1.4-2, 1.8-2.4 3.6-5.4

we are also panasonic dealers so if you looking to buy please give me a shout

 

hope that helps

[sleepytom]

Thanks - that has cleared up my confusion.

What do people do about flying these things? Is there a rental / stacking frame for them? I've seen Audipack do a stacking system, but I wondered if there are other options?

[Jasonbrownstuff]

Panasonic dont do a frame for them as there install products rather than rental products

there is the usual KP martin will make on or Unicol

[AHYoung]

There are a variety of frames available, but if you dont need to double stack flown id just use Unicol which is what we use for ours. Some of our bigger stuff is in KP martin frames which are best described as robust and heavy. On refelection alloy ones may have been worth the extra money but they cost rather a lot and its probably not economic for use with the single chips as your probably just going to use a bigger unit rather than messing about stacking them. Obviously its easy to stack them on the deck or a tower as you just put one on top of another.

If you want an advanced unit that offers proper adjustment in all axis , look at the Audipak units, http://www.audipack.com/uploads/webs_audipack_products/images/24074_96911.pdf

 

 

Im interested that you say that panasonic dont make a frame as they dont think its a rental product, That couldnt be further from the truth and Panasonic are very focussed in establishing these as the standard mid range pro rental units. Having bought the Dz770s after already owning the other options or looking very closely at them, I cant see why these wont be industry standard for the next few years.

[Jasonbrownstuff]

I didnt mean you cant use them for hire because we do im just saying in the panasonic book I have in front of me all the modals we have spoke of come under there installation range, and hence they dont offer a frame,

in there rental/ staging range they offer frames for all dlp models.

 

I think your right they will be the standard for the 5-8 k brightness range.

 

 

 

 

[sleepytom]

We have occasionally stacked our XP200s - useful when doing low budget jobs where using our inhouse kit makes more sense than hiring in a single bright machine. I would envisage doing this more frequently with the panasonics as the better construction should enable us to get a better lineup out of them than is possible with XP200s, Double stacked 6k or 7k machines offers redundancy and is attractive for certain jobs which need reliability but don't have the budget for stacked 3chip DLPs.

 

There is also a perception thing, projectors in frames look professional, and clients are happy to pay for them. Given these panasonics are not much brighter than things that Optimer and BenQ offer it is good for clients to see a clear visual distinction between the office / toy projector brands and these quality machines.

 

 

[Tim gregory]

Hi Tom,

 

Just out of interest did you go for these projectors in the end and how do they perform?

How is the latency running at the native resolution?

Is there any advantages / disadvantages of DLP over LCD

 

I am looking to put a HD 6500 - 7500 lumen projector in an installation (although we may take it out occasionally) with a 0.8 lens.

This will be fed from an ATEM 1ME via component, predominantly for IMAG.

I would be grateful if anyone has any recommendations for this?

 

I currently have some Christie LX605 for touring and these have a great image despite being only 1024x768, they also have the ability to change the latency down to about 1 frame at the expense of keystone and some other processes.

 

Thanks,

 

Tim

[dbini]

"Is there any advantages / disadvantages of DLP over LCD"

one advantage of LCD over DLP is if you are going to be taking photographs of the projected DLP image, sometimes the colours can go a bit dodgy if the shutter speed is fast enough to separate out a single colour from the wheel. shooting video footage of the projection can be a bit flickery, but I've not experienced the rolling bars that sometimes appear in images from a LCD unit.

[AHYoung]

We have both the main contenders in our hire stock for the 7k hd market in the pamasonic dz770 and the sanyo hd7000 now available as the christie hd700. both are decent units, both are made by panasonic, but ones a dlp and ones a quad lcd.

 

Basically the dz770 is about as good a single chip lcd as you will get and its in a well designed and practical chassis. its a dual lamp design and it takes lenses that are widely available including the dle080 which is a 0.8 thats got a fine focus, allows lens shift , zooms between 0.8 and 1.1:1 and lets more light through than a standard 0.8. There is also a dle 030 coming later this year, this is similar to a bolt on ultra short throw with around a 0.3:1 ratio - when it arrives will be a game changer.

 

 

The Sanyo / Christie is about as good an image as ive seen from an lcd, its bright and vibrant but still has a bit of detail in the darks. If you want the best you will need to invest in a whole set of lenses which are pretty rare to crosshire as unlike the panasonics they are unique to this model. The lenses from older 1.3" lcd units fit, but you can tell they arent working that well. Its also 16/9 unlike the 16/10 of pretty much everything else.

 

 

We have sold both and unsed both extensively and I think its telling that the lcd unit was the first compact and bright unit to the market at the pricepoint but rather than buy a load more, we have bought the dlp units for our own hirestock. ive had a few reliability issues with the lcd unit and its been for a couple of optical cleans in only a few hundred hours use. We do try and keep units in decent condition, but the cleaning bills soon add up.

 

Tim - Id say go for a dz770 with a dle080 lens, it wont be cheap but its built for the job and has lamp relay, in built scheduling etc etc so should be cost effective in the long run as it should just work and keep working.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tim gregory]

Tim - Id say go for a dz770 with a dle080 lens, it wont be cheap but its built for the job and has lamp relay, in built scheduling etc etc so should be cost effective in the long run as it should just work and keep working.

 

Thanks for this. Do you have any details on what latency the projector would add when running 1080i to it?

 

Regards,

 

Tim

[sleepytom]

That's something I intend to test this week on our DZ6700s - I might even get round to making the automated latency test app that I've been wanting for a while.

 

I'll let you know the numbers when I have done the testing.

 

cheers

tom

[AHYoung]

I also never get around to measuring latency. boom tish... I requested latency figures from pan technical a while ago and with a progressive signal at 50hz it should be 2 frames, interlaced its 2.5. Whether that increases if you scale and keystone the image etc im not sure, but in my experience the sanyos have allways been a bit latent with around half a dozen frames delay at a guess. , thats backed up by the fact that with film showings in medium sized venues generally id be adding 100ms to the audio to bring it back into line using a sanyo lcd, Ive not had to bother with the delays as much with the panaonic dlps.