Sony VPL-PS10…21st Century Fox…

If its lumens that you want and you don’t have a whole lot of money to spend, why not pick up a used Sony VPL-PS10. With an original price tag of $3400 US way back in 2001 you would be looking at a reduced price of roughly $1200 US.

This projector was designed to blast out the brightness with complete disregard for contrast. It discharges a full 1500 ANSI lumens projecting a bright beautiful picture, therefore fully utilizing the power its 200W projector lamp.

The VPL-PS10 was almost quite obviously built for business use as its ample brightness while at the same time weighing only 8lbs. Another note is that this projector came out at a time when disclosing the contrast was a very unpopular habit. It is impossible to find out exactly what the contrast is but you can tell by the picture quality and decent blacks that it can’t be too far off from the 500:1 mark.

It is very funny that Sony doesn’t disclose this fact, but this might cement the business quality performance of the machine even more because most business presentations don’t require high contrast. The VPL-PS10, like I said earlier, still does perform quite well in the color saturation category and provides a nice crisp picture.

Sony really loved to hold back information on this snappy little machine, this time they don’t release the audible noise level. No need to worry on this point as it runs pretty smooth without too much distraction for the viewers.

SVGA resolution is what makes this baby deliver a really nice image. Operating with 800x600p over native 4:3 aspect ratio you can expect the very best that Sony has to offer way back in 2001.

There aren’t any inputs that give compatibility with HDTV, meaning that this machine is going to require a bit of imagination when it comes to wiring so that you get a decent picture. I recommend connecting through the VGA hookup, if you are either presenting or watching a movie, to really take advantage of the PS10’s resolution.

I haven’t heard about too many problems regarding lamp life considering that the PS10 puts out so much power, so expect the average life to be around 1500 hours. Sony once again fails to give any information regarding its product. I tried calling Sony’s toll-free help-phone and was put on hold a total of 4 times for over 45 minutes of total waiting time before I just hung up in fury!

There is one thing that really did impress me, and that one thing involves lenses. Sony has made it easy to replace and customize your lenses for the PS10. This is makes it simple for the user to set up your projector according to your environment.

Overall I give the PS10 a 3.66 out of 5 for its ingenuity and spunk as we entered the 21 century.