Best options for a 5" upgradeable projector?

[barawn]

Best options for a 5" upgradeable projector?

Hi everyone:

I'm trying to figure out the best lighting and lens options for a projector that will start off with a 5" PSone LCD (well, Verge gamecube) and hopefully be upgraded to a higher resolution LCD. Probably 15" - as that seems to be the cheapest "higher than 640x480" LCD that you can buy, if you can find one with a broken backlight (~$50 on ebay).

So should I go with the lumenlabs triplet instead of Surplus Shed's 290 mm copy lens? Is there a sub-$100 high-resolution LCD that will fit within the copy lens's FOV?

I've been thinking about buying a 400W MH ballast & bulb off of eBay (something like this, which would then be disassembled). Is there any reason this wouldn't work for both a PSone type LCD and a larger, higher resolution LCD?

Also: I've got a ridiculous number of old laptops, one of which has a 13.3" TFT LCD. Is this small enough to be usable with the copy lens?

Thanks!

 

[barawn]

Well, I guess I'll update a bit with my own status, then.

I ordered the 290 mm copy lens from SurplusShed, along with another copy lens which was wider, but with a shorter focal length (9"=228 mm, f4.5). I figured what the heck, it's not much money, let's see what it does.

Both of the lenses arrived - I have to say, the 9" f4.5 copy lens is *huge*, and very heavy. It's 92 mm in diameter (as opposed to 65 mm) and so I'm hoping that it's enough to cover a 15" LCD. It'll be short throw, of course. Any opinions?

Also, I'm still wondering if the high bay lighting ballasts that I linked to above will work with any bulb that's good for projection. Any ideas?

 

[dracul]

Are you gonna use this lens for the psone screen /projector first?

Let me know how it goes cause I want to use that lens also for a psone projector.