Sanyo Z3 - any chance of finding one now?

Mark153 · 13-10-2005, 11:49 AM

Following much reading of this ever-useful forum, I have convinced myself (and more importantly the missus!) that the Sanyo Z3 is absolutely the best projector to buy. The only snag now is that I am probably two weeks too late to lay my hands on one

Can anybody suggest some suppliers that I might contact in a last ditch bid to source one?

ROne · 13-10-2005, 12:12 PM

I just got shut of mine today for £650.

Maybe if you're not too fussy there will be some like me who will give up their Z3s for a Z4 ...

You may get one with low hours on, and the remainder of the warranty, which if you talk nicely to the seller you could sort out between you.

But if you're set on a new one then I don't know.

Comer · 13-10-2005, 2:06 PM

I'm currently considering selling mine. Is the warranty on the Sanyos transferable?

ROne · 13-10-2005, 2:50 PM

Probably not, but I'm sure you can work something out with your buyer.

My Z4 has come into stock today, may get it tommorow but I doubt it.

Comer · 13-10-2005, 2:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROne

Probably not, but I'm sure you can work something out with your buyer.

My Z4 has come into stock today, may get it tommorow but I doubt it.

Your opinion of the Z4 will be the deciding factor in my plan to upgrade. Although from reviews so far would have me edging towards holding out for the Z5

ROne · 13-10-2005, 2:57 PM

You know, I was sat down watching a film the other night and thinking - there's not much wrong with this. In fact DVD was the limiting factor.

And I thought why do I need to upgrade ... a bit of me didn't want to (I could do with not having to spend anything and the fact I'd got the projector exactly how I wanted it after a year!).

I also know that the Z4 will be an improvement on the Z3, but I think every year is too much for too little. The Z1 to Z3 big leap. Z2 to Z3 not so big ...

However I just can't help myself ...

retrof · 13-10-2005, 3:26 PM

I think pixmania may still have it in stock at around the £860 mark - usual pixmania caveats apply (power cable, french manual etc.). A little pricey given the prices that nexnix had before they ran out of stock, and also considering that that much money would have gotten you a free lamp also at one point. Still, £860 for a new Z3... or c.£1300 for a Z4... personally I would go with the Z3, although that's because I got one of the last at nexnix....
best of luck,
-rg

stevelup · 14-10-2005, 7:50 AM

Hi

I had one on the classifieds here for £700 but there was a lack of interest so I withdrew it last night.

I haven't done anything with it yet so if you are interested, I will readvertise it.

Steve

Mark_a · 14-10-2005, 9:16 AM

I see nothing whatsoever to warrant moving from a Z3 to a Z4. It would be hard to think of anything suffering more from the law of diminishing returns.

Regards

Mark

Comer · 14-10-2005, 9:56 AM

Everything I have read so far would have me in 99% agreement with you, but I'm waiting for ROnes comparison between the Z3 and Z4 to push me the last 1%. I'm now thinking that the way to go is the HS60 and be done with this dreadful upgradeites for a while

ROne · 14-10-2005, 10:42 AM

In for a penny in for a pound ...

Thing is for me I'm lucky my projector is a business expense (we do multimedia stuff), so upgrading is not that painful for me.

However if we can get 4000:1 CR out of it at D65 that would be 4x better than now?

I'm reluctant to move to the sony cos they are quite a bit more expensive and I feel that I understand the Sanyo series, plus get a good trade price.

Comer · 14-10-2005, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROne

In for a penny in for a pound ...

Thing is for me I'm lucky my projector is a business expense (we do multimedia stuff), so upgrading is not that painful for me.

However if we can get 4000:1 CR out of it at D65 that would be 4x better than now?

I'm reluctant to move to the sony cos they are quite a bit more expensive and I feel that I understand the Sanyo series, plus get a good trade price.

If you get 4000:1 out of it, I'll probably jump myself. It's just the reported black levels that bother me. Has it arrived yet?

ROne · 14-10-2005, 11:08 AM

Not come yet, may come pm.

Failing that monday - it has been sent out but you know couriers ...

Audiofilenoob · 14-10-2005, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROne

In for a penny in for a pound ...

Thing is for me I'm lucky my projector is a business expense (we do multimedia stuff), so upgrading is not that painful for me.

However if we can get 4000:1 CR out of it at D65 that would be 4x better than now?

I'm reluctant to move to the sony cos they are quite a bit more expensive and I feel that I understand the Sanyo series, plus get a good trade price.

Personally all the LCD on the market are dissappointing for me.

I bought a Sony HS50 a short while ago and I'd set myself a strict budget of £1600. I also had to have a 720p machine, this limited me to LCD's.

There was nowhere to demo around here so I took a leap of faith and bought what the general concensus thought was the best and that was the HS50. Soon as I setup I was immediately dissapointed with the image, I'm not an expert but I do know when I see a good picture. The Sony was average at best. I stuck with it and did get a better picture by messing around but shortly afterwards the lamp died and I refused a replacement and asked for a refund.

To cut a long story short I decided I had to travel to actual see what was on offer and demoed a couple of DLP's. The first was an infocus 7210 and the second was a Mitsubishi HC2000. Both were a big leap over the HS50 much better colours and you didn't get that horrible iris thing making the picture way too dim. Everything was punchy all the time.

These of course are both WAY out of my price range (around £3500) but I decided to look at the second hand market for a DLP. Still looking but I couldn't live with an LCD.

PJTX100 · 14-10-2005, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Audiofilenoob

Personally all the LCD on the market are dissappointing for me.

Don't tar all LCD's with one brush just because you've had a bad experience with a HS50. It may well have been a dud.

You can get some amazing pics with HD LCD projectors. Extremely punchy, vivid colours, amazing detail. As you can with DLP of course, except you pay OTT for DLP HD capability...PJ

Penfold73 · 14-10-2005, 1:07 PM

And there's no pot of gold at the end of those rainbows.

foghorn · 14-10-2005, 1:31 PM

Quote:

Personally all the LCD on the market are dissappointing for me.

Hope you don't mind me asking apart from the HS50 which other LCD have you looked at?

Foghorn

foghorn · 14-10-2005, 1:34 PM

Quote:

There was nowhere to demo around here so I took a leap of faith and bought what the general concensus thought was the best and that was the HS50.

Read your post again i don't think you need to answer my Question.

Foghorn

Audiofilenoob · 14-10-2005, 7:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by foghorn

Read your post again i don't think you need to answer my Question.

Foghorn

Seems I've provoked some LCD fanboys. You must understand that these are my opinions and I'm not pushing these as fact.

Its not a personal attack on your machines just merely an observation that I was pointing out that may tell another side of the story. Nothing is all things to all men(except Kelly Brook).

FWIW: I've seen the TX100 and HS20 last year at a place called Show and Shoot. I was looking around then but for the money I wanted to spend I couldn't live with the quality on offer. The TX100 has aweful VB on uniform grey pattern, blacks were grey even when we turned the iris down to 0 (too dim then as well!) The HS20 was better but still had virtually zero shadow detail and grey fogging in dark scenes. I decided to wait a few months for all the new machine to arrive expecting the iris technology to come to the rescue. I was wrong. LCD's are fine for bright stuff like CG films, gaming and windows but for movies... depends how picky you are I guess.

Conclusion: I've either owned or demoed 3 different LCD's and all highly regarded models. So LCD is infact dissappointing for me. Maybe the next generation like the HS60, AE900, TX200 and Z4 will make big improvements, doesn't look that way from ROne's move from Z3 to Z4.

Audiofilenoob · 14-10-2005, 7:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penfold73

And there's no pot of gold at the end of those rainbows.

For some that makes DLP useless, so they have to settle for LCD or get a bank loan for a 3 chip/SXRD/LCOS.

Thankfully I don't see them at all or at least none on the HC2000/IF7210.

PJTX100 · 14-10-2005, 7:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Audiofilenoob

Seems I've provoked some LCD fanboys.

You certainly know how to make yourself welcome. 4 posts in too, should be entertaining.

I think you'll find I said DLP's were overpriced, not that they weren't good machines. Had any HD DLP's been available for 1K when I was looking I could just have easily gone DLP.

I have no issue with people having opinions, I do have issue with people with different opinions being called fanboys...PJ

foghorn · 15-10-2005, 1:29 PM

Audiofilenoob

Quote:

Seems I've provoked some LCD fanboys

Just for the record i owned an LCD projector around 5 years ago and upgraded to a DLP which i still own.

The bottom line is that every technology has its pro's and con's.

Foghorn

PJTX100 · 15-10-2005, 2:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by foghorn

Just for the record i owned an LCD projector around 5 years ago and upgraded to a DLP which i still own.

DLP fanboy!