lens filter on pj?

[Jurgen]

Hi all,

I was wondering if any of you have experimented with lens filters. When I had my Panasonic PTAE 100, I was a bit disappointed by the screen door effect and the poor depth of field. Then one day while I was watching Harry potter with my brother, he put up his sunglasses. At first I thought it was a very bad joke since I took so much trouble in darkening the room.

That quickly changed however when my brother urged me to try the glasses because of a better picture. Indeed: colours and depth of field(black level) were much improved and I could not detect the screendooreffect. The picture was so much more cinematic!
The next day I went to a camera shop and tried out different camera filters. The grey filter suited the best and since then I haven’t been watching without.

Recently I’ve purchased another projector (sanyo plv z1)because of the difficulties I had with the panny projector (scrolling diagonal lines on progressive pal). The projector is so much better! Realising the benefit of changing components and reading about a hoya fl-d filter on the internet(in conjunction with a panny projector), I am looking into other lenses as well and was wondering if any of you could help me.

According to the lens specs of the hoya filter it would reduce the green colours in favour of red (to counter effect the green colours of indoor lightning photography). Not sure how it works out though and if I order the lens I am stuck with the purchase.

For those who haven’t tried lens filters: just use sunglasses for fun and let me know! 8)

Regards,
Jurgen

[Andrew Pratt]

There's been some talk of people using filters on the Z1 but I haven't followed it enough to comment one way or the other...thogh owning the 1HD its something i should look into..unless of course you try it first

[George Bellefontaine]

Does the Z1 allow user adjustments of color temperature ? This will need to be done if you plan on using a filter, and adjusting color temp on lcd is no easy task without some kind of technical istruments. You can go by eye, which I did with my Sony VPL 400Q, but it's a guessing game. The greyscale may look right to the naked eye, but how the color temp tracks across the greyscale is quite another thing entirely.




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[Andrew Pratt]

Does the Z1 allow user adjustments of color temperature ?

Yes as well as gamma controls. These are both in the regular menu...there's even more options in the service menu if you really want to tweak the image.

[Wireless]

In order to maximize the results from use of a filter like the Hoya muticoat FLD you need to have control over individual brightness and contrast for R,G, and B. When you maximize these controls, and use the filter to bring the color balance closer to D65, you can achieve better black levels and contrast levels that will probably exceed the manufaturers specs.

UHP and NSM bulbs are red deficient and to compensate for that deficiency the internal controls are set to bring down green and blue. Using the contrast and brightness patterns in AVIA will allow you to set gain and bias controls to the point just below clipping, maximizing contrast. The picture will be noticably green/blue but that is the reason for the Hoya FLD, brings the color back in balance.




John
My HT Picts

[JonMarsh]

John has got it down pat- success requires the right filter, the ability to adjust RGB gain and bias in the service menu, and overall balance out the panels so that they're all working at something closer to full range (in contrast) than is possible with typical UHP bulb spectra, which is biased toward the green and blue. Well, really, it's just weak in the red.

I helpd a guy out locally by getting a K&R enhancing filter, and re-calibrating one of the customer user color temp setups on his 10HT; it helped a lot; the "blacks" weren't blue-green gray afterwards, and the overall contrast improved. This is what Steve Holcomb's SMART calibration for 10HT's with a CC filter accomplishes, but the standard gel CC filters don't hold up well to the light output, which is why we tried the 110 mm K&R glass filter (more expensive, but cheap compared to the price of a new projector.

Almost any projector NOT using a Xenon bulb could benefit from this, as long as you have service menu access- most don't have the requisite controls in user menus.

Regards,

Jon




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[Jurgen]

Thanks a lot for the replies. I definitely will experiment a bit further. Right now I don't really know which questions to ask or how to comment on certain replies(some terms like “d65” really are unknown to me ops: ).

I'll just take the plunge on the hoya filter(it takes about 6 weeks to arrive!) and ask more specifically when I encounter any bumps on the road.

Thanks again,
Jurgen

[Andrew Pratt]

I'm going to try a Hoya FL-D filter on my 1HD unit soon so I'll report back on what I find.

[Dean McManis]

I had my G15 D-ILA FPTV color calibrated with a Magenta photographic color filter and I got better black level and contrast. It was a visible and measurable improvement. But I had mine professionally done.

Most digital projectors, especially commercial units that value light output highly have the green component cranked up to raise the lumens rating, but it does vary from projector to projector.

D65 is the roughly 6500K color temp that motion picture film is calibrated to match/achieve. and calibrating your projector to produce the same color light makes for a more accurate color representation for watching film-based movies.

If you have a very bright projector and full external light control, you can use a neutral color density filter to trade off some of the light output for better blacks and contrast improvements. A gray screen has a similar effect.

-Dean.

[Jurgen]

Hi Andrew,
I anxiously await your results!

Dean:
Thanks for enlightening me(literally)!

Jurgen

[Andrew Pratt]

Well I won an eBay auction for a set of lenses one of which is the Hoya FL-D so I should have that to play with later this week.

[SayersWeb]

I use the FL-D on my Panny L300u due to the slight green push. I found the image to look more natural with the filter. Also seemed to add more depth to the picture.

I did have to recalibrate using the S&V Tune-Up DVD after the filter install.




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[Andrew Pratt]

My lens filter arrived today and it definalty improves the image from my 1HD projector:T Fleshtones are now much more natural looking vs the green tinge they had before. Its difficult to see the green tinge when looking at the image before hand but with the filter in hand moving it in and out of place quickly illustrates how green it was before. It also darkens the image a bit which improves the perceived contrast so for what I paid for it IMO its well worth the effort.

[Jurgen]

Hi Andrew,

I am glad it worked out for you! Maybe this is a stupid question(since there are so many variables involved), but could you sum up your picture settings(contrast, colour, brightness, settings for red green and blue and perhaps other deviations)?

It's just that I am very much interested in the settings of other plvz1 users (especially if they use a fld filter). But maybe I should start a new thread for this.

I hope it's not to much trouble!

regards,
Jurgen

[cofn]

Andrew,

Just wondering which filter you ended up with. After your post about a noticable improvement I went combing the net for the Hoya FL-D, but came back with about 50 different variations of it. I may be intersted in picking one up in the near future. Thanx.

[Andrew Pratt]

I have my setting set to what I like best based on Avia and my own eyes. I'll see about posting a list if you want to start a new thread on it.

Kris honestly I'm not sure which I got given mine was used from eBay. I think its a multicoated one