Viewsonic 8200 or...etc. (small room)

At $600, you cannot go wrong with this projector, and as a newb it is a really good projector because of the brightness for one, and two because of the really good color without a calibration. The image will push red at first, but do not fret, that goes away as the lamp ages and it very nicely ages into a relatively near D65 image even at defaults with no calibration (it's one of the few projectors I've ever seen do this).

The short throw issue is a bit complicated, it really depends on your screen size preference and the room itself, and where you want to mount the projector. I think a short throw would be easier to get a bigger screen, but be careful because despite what some say you can actually go TOO big in such a small room.

The 8200 has some advantages over the 8350, the 8350 has better placement flexibility though, so that is the tough part. The pro8200 is more film-like with a much higher pixel fill (we are talking double the pixel fill almost). The Pro8200 has a much brighter best mode. The 8350 has slightly better image processing which only matters in non-bluray sources. The Pro8200 is at least as sharp and probably usually sharper, although a really well converged 8350 might be sharper given the 8200 has a 1:1 pixel mapping issue (but the pixel mapping issue is just an outlining effect if you get it set just right, rather than a full-blown double line effect, well it is actually both in some cases). Kind of hard to explain.

The only other thing to consider is if you want 3D, if you do then look at one of the 720p 3D ones, I hear the Optoma GT750 is good, never seen one myself though.