Gobo projectors

[revbobuk]

Guys - I have no expertise in this area, so would appreciate some suggestions. A group I work with are looking to display poster-like images on a wall, and have been looking at gobo projectors. A number of issues spring to mind.

 

Has LED technology impacted here? I wonder if lower temperature light sources mean less heat at the gate, so DIY images become a possibility, printed onto acetate sheet? Is there any kind of keystone adjustment in any of the available projectors? (they're planning to project onto a wall from above, and that seems to me to be a recipe for massive keystoning)

 

Which devices are good - budget isn't huge, but what do we need to pay for something worth having?

[Jivemaster]

I tend to think of Kodak carousel slide projectors for this sort of task, 35mm slides should be dead cheap and the projectors are sub £20 complete on ebay,

[bruce]

Talking of Carousel projectors - can you dim them? I’ve seen some where the fan and lighting circuits have been separated - in practice is this necessary?

 

Any recommended sources for supplying 35mm slides from a digital image?

[Jivemaster]

With the current camera market a film camera from OM1 to Nikon or Canon with lens should cost less than £25. Most towns will have a professional graphics house with write to film capability, but it will be in a graphics/designer place not a high street photo shop.

[Don Allen]

I bought a second hand projector for community theatre use and it has keystone correction built into its menus. Main disadvantage was having to make a shutter out of an old CDROM drive. The Kodak Carousel does not have keystone correction, but you can get plastic gobos and 35mm slides made in the UK with keystone correction. I bought a used 15W Chauvel Gobo Zoom 2to try it out, to find an easier way to project plastic gobos instead of using a Pacific. You can make your own gobos but the gobo size is very small. If you are looking into getting a led gobo projector, look for a larger gobo size for better resolution of your image. You would want a 40W led projector for reasonable brightness.

 

You will find posts on BR on Gobo Projection.

[dbuckley]

Talking of Carousel projectors - can you dim them?

The Carousel brand covers a huge variety of projectors, and some are dimmable. Readily available in the UK was the S-AV2000, and that brought the lamp circuit out so an external dimmer could dim the lamp. The lamp circuit was the secondary of the transformer, so it was (from memory) 24VAC.

 

The Ektagraphic (or maybe Ektapro, failing memory) models are much better; they have integrated dimmers, and by just sending RS232 commands the lamp can be dimmed from 1 - 100%. Despite the fact I cant remember exactly what the damned thing is called, I have a couple of these in the garage!

 

Any recommended sources for supplying 35mm slides from a digital image?

Print the image out on OHP transparency material in your inkjet or laser, and mount using Gepe model 7001 glassless slide mounts.

[DonkiDonki]

Is it an option to use a video/data projector?

Cost would be dependent on what you needed and how long for but at least you have a chance for decent keystone correction.

[revbobuk]

Some interesting ideas here, but it would be helpful if someone could offer a bit of information about gobo projectors as well. I have added slide projectors and data projection as possibilities, but what options are there for gobo led devices?

[James Remo]

Opti solar LED http://www.optikinetics.com/product/solar-250-led

[timsabre]

Some interesting ideas here, but it would be helpful if someone could offer a bit of information about gobo projectors as well. I have added slide projectors and data projection as possibilities, but what options are there for gobo led devices?

 

I've had a play with the Optikinetics Solar 250-LED and it is good but expensive (£400 ish). The light output from its 40W led is pretty similar to the original 250W halogen and it's optically sharp. The "gate" is reasonably large so you would probably get away with printed OHP acetates resolution-wise but the mount is designed for their rotator wheels so mounting a fixed image might require a bit of bodgery.

 

There's various disco type LED projectors but they all have weedy leds in them so unless you're projecting in a dark room they will not be bright enough.

eg Chauvet ez-gobo http://www.chauvetlighting.co.uk/ez-gobo.html

ADJ gobo projector http://www.adj.com/gobo-projector-led

Chauvet gobo shot - this has a 50W led and takes D-size gobos - but is discontinued, might be worth a go if you can find one http://www.chauvetlighting.co.uk/gobo-shot-50w-irc.html

[marktownend]

I've used digitalslides.co.uk 2 or 3 times in the past, very good service and suberp image quality. Needed to be pretty good detail as I was projecting an image with some fine detail onto the end of a building, roughly 15-18m high from memory. Used a Clay Paky VIP300 for info.

[musht]

Opti appear to be about to release a compact LED gobo projector

 

http://www.optikinetics.co.uk/product/opti-gobopro-led-projector

 

Can get slide mounts and changers for Solars and all manner of other things ;-)

 

ADJ seem to have cleared out the range and now offer a 60W unit at around 260, not sharpest optics in the box:

 

http://www.ukdiscolighting.co.uk/american-dj-ikon-ir--gobo-projector-5250-p.asp

[stevep]

Might be worth taking a look at the Equinox Gobo Projectors which I think are around £100each - we've just taken delivery of a few of them and I'm looking to try them out over the next week or so. They have a 30watt LED, DMX controlled with gobo rotation- but the rotation can be switched off. You can put acetate into the gate without any problem.

Does not have keystone - but you could do that in your image before printing

Only issue is that the gobo size is pretty small so you run a risk of the image looking a bit hazy once you've enlarged it so big.