Which short-throw projector?

Does anybody know which projector would give me the biggest image at about 9 and a half feet. I am currently considering the Panny 500 and the Sanyo Z2 which will give me about a 70 inch diagonal image.

I know that DLP would probably give me a less washed out picture, but I would be trading off size down to about 60 inches. I have read that Sharp are doing a wide angle lens on their Z200 (called teh Z200-E I think), but that will cost me about £2700 which is more than I want to spend.

Are there any other projectors out there that might be worth while considering for <£2000?

[KraGorn]

To be pedantic, the Z200 is the long-throw, it's the Z201 that's short .. can be had around £2500 I believe but still a good way over £2000.

To be honest, I know of nothing between the price of the Z2/500 and maybe the Z200 which will give you anything better. You might want to research the Epson TW200 which is around £1700, I've no idea of it's throw.

The Sharps are nice, I have a Z200 largely because of its' longer throw and think it's a great improvement over the Z2 I had before .. of course if you can see and can't tolerate rainbows then a DLP isn't for you at any price/throw.

Alex-1701

Its worthwhile looking at the ThemeScene H30, it will give you a diagonal of appx 67 inch on a 4:3 or 62 inches on a 16:9.

I very happy with mine, colours, detail, black level etc...

LongBow

[Gary Lightfoot]

Alex, how far from the screen will you be sitting? If you're much closer than 2 times screen width (i.e sitting less than 18ft from a 9ft wide screen), then you may start to see the 'screendoor' pixel grid which may spoli your viewing pleasure.

Gary.

Yes, I have thought of that. Actually with the Panny 500 if I sit 1.5 times the width of the screen back I can't see any screen door, I know because I've checked it out. That means I should be able to get a 6 foot diagonal image with this projector, and if I sit back at 11 feet, I should just about be okay.

I have just seen the H56 advertised for just under £2000 at Krish Audio. Anybody got one of those? How good are they?

[KraGorn]

I didn't mention that because I think the throw is longer than you're looking for .. not sure how 'short' you want. There's a throw chart for the H56 here at Ivojo.

[Gary Lightfoot]

I've not seen an H56 myself, but a side by side comparison over at the US forum against the NEC HT1000 gave it a very good review.