Early this year, we learned that our department had gotten a new LCD projector. No one bothered to make any concerted effort to inform the Social Studies department, or to encourage people to use it. As is typical, the technology is in the school, somewhere, if you’re lucky and savvy enough to know how to get it.

When my roommate mentioned that he was going to sign it out for a day, I suggested that he just hold on to it. Chances are our chairperson wouldn’t ask for it back. We’ve been squatting on it for about two months now. We did lend it out to another teacher in the department once, but for the most part it resides in our room.

I love having the projector, but a few weeks ago I started thinking it might be time to invest in my own. Once you use one, it gets kind of addicting. You can’t imagine teaching without it – without the flexibility to show streaming movies, to use powerpoint at will, to easily incorporate images and cartoons found online.

What Do You Need In a Projector…?

After some research, I’ve decided that there are three basic features on a projector that matter to me: brightness, resolution, and lamp hours.

Brightness, measured in lumens, determines how bright and clear the image is. This is especially important if you are using the projector in a room that isn’t perfectly dark. Even if I could make the room pitch black, students need a dim light to take notes by, so it’s important to have a high enough brightness that the image is clear with some lights on.

From what I’ve read, a minimum of about 1,000 lumens will give you a decent picture in a dimly lit room. I think the projector we have right now is rated at 1,500 lumens. As the quality of projectors goes up and the price goes down, I think a target of 2,000 lumens should be reasonable.

For the resolution, I’d like a projector that matches the resolution I use on my classroom computer. It’s typically set at 1024 x 768, so I want a projector that can match that. Otherwise it would be a pain to switch the resolution on the computer constantly, and it wouldn’t be as good for displaying websites.

Lamp hours are basically an issue of value. If I’m going to shell out a couple hundred bucks for a projector, I want it to last a while. A new lamp could cost a couple hundred bucks, too, so it wouldn’t do to buy a projector and have to replace the lamp within a year or two. Most of the projectors I’ve seen are rated at 2-3,000 hours, which should last for a good long while.

Two Options

After determining the specs I wanted, I started shopping around. Most of the projectors I found started at about $500.00. That’s not an unreasonable price, but it’s more than I’d like to spend at the moment.

One model I looked at was the Epson Powerlite S6. It’s listed on the Epson site at $550. It meets all the specs I’m looking for – 2200 lumens, high resolution, and 3-4,000 hours of lamp life. Too bad it’s $550.

I tried looking on ebay and craigslist for some used projectors. I had no luck on craigslist, but I did find a few options on ebay. I think if I were patient enough I could find a decent one and snag a it for $2-300. However, the last few days has been short on high quality used projectors. I found a couple old projectors, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to find replacement parts when the lamps die, so they’d be a bad investment in the long run.

The Chinese Import Option

Then I stumbled on a Chinese company, Digital Galaxy. From what I can tell, they produce a line of economy (cheap?) projectors. I couldn’t find a lot of information about them online, but there were two or three retailers selling the items on eBay. I found a listing for a new model, the DG-852.

The DG-852 Projector met most of my requirements – 2200 brightness, 5,000 lamp hours, and a maximum resolution of 1024 x 768. It was cheap – about $375 after shipping. I found one forum post where somebody said they were happy with a Digital Galaxy projector, and there were a good number of people on eBay who left the sellers good feedback.

Although I would have liked to have seen more information online regarding the reputation of the company, I decided to go for it. I plunked down the cash and ordered the projector, which should arrive via DHL within the week. Within a few hours of payment, I’d received notification that the item was shipped and I got a DHL tracking number. At least the seller is prompt with his communication.

If this projector turns out to be decent, it is a great value and perfect for use in the classroom. I’ll be sure to post a review of the item once I test it out next week.