[dyates69]

I've just had a projector shipped from the US. It's a Marantz VP-11S2 and the picture is great, except there is major haloing around every even semi bright object. Looking into the lens it appears the inner surface is cloudy. I assume moisture has built up due to the flight.


Will this go away over time, or does anyone know how hard it is to remove these lenses in order to clean them?


Due to this issue I'd say my current ANSI CR is measuring about 50:1!


Thanks

 

[ilsiu]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dyates69 /forum/post/18159626


I've just had a projector shipped from the US. It's a Marantz VP-11S2 and the picture is great, except there is major haloing around every even semi bright object. Looking into the lens it appears the inner surface is cloudy. I assume moisture has built up due to the flight.


Will this go away over time, or does anyone know how hard it is to remove these lenses in order to clean them?


Due to this issue I'd say my current ANSI CR is measuring about 50:1!


Thanks

If it's moisture, then it should evaporate after being warmed for a short time. But if then lens was exposed to moisture for a long time, there could be mildew on the lens or maybe the optical coatings could be corroded, and that won't get better over time.


Is the projector under warranty? I'd send it back to have the lens checked.

 

[Peter Nielsen]

I would not worry about mildew. That's extremely far fetched.


What probably happened is condensation. This happened to my G15 after transatlantic air shipping many years ago. I checked out the projector in North Carolina, and if was flawless. However, after air shipping from US to Finland it got "water spots" in the red light path. Apparently condensation water dissolved something and when it dried in the light path, it left spots...


The reason it happened was ironically the fact that the box was opened for deat pixel inspection and calibration before shipping, plus the fact that it was August and very humid in NC. In hindsight I guess things were not prepared correctly for air shipping. The proper action when resealing the box would have been to put in a new bag or two of "silica gel" (moisture absorbing substance) and then carefully seal the plastic bag around the machine. This would probably have prevented it from happening. The silica gel would have absorbed the moisture of the air inside the bag, preventing condensation to occur. (I realized this when I received my new Planar PD8150 and it had a *big* bag of silica gel. I'm guessing the dealer forgot to include the oh-so-important bag of silica gel when repacking my G15 after calibration).

 

[dyates69]

Thanks for that Peter. Any idea what I can do now though to get rid of it?

 

[Peter Nielsen]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dyates69 /forum/post/18159959


Thanks for that Peter. Any idea what I can do now though to get rid of it?

Send in the projector for service or return it to the seller

Unless another 11S2 owner here has a better suggestion...


(I'm assuming you've already let it sit for a day or two with no apparent change in picture?)

 

[Jason Turk]

I am not clear...is it a fog/moisture on the lens now, or residue from a fog/moisture?

 

[funlvr1965]

Damn, that's the best part of the machine....send it back for service Im assuming its still under warranty?

 

[dyates69]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Turk /forum/post/18160745


I am not clear...is it a fog/moisture on the lens now, or residue from a fog/moisture?

It could be either I guess. It's quite cloudy though.

 

[dyates69]

No I don't think it's under warranty.

 

[dyates69]

Okay I've had another look with the unit turned off by flashing a dull torch into the lens. I figured that would give me a better indication of where the problem lies, as initially it looked to be on the middle lens face.


With the torch pointing inward on a certain angle it looks clear all the way through to what I guess to be the iris at the end of the lens. But when I angle the torch on a particular angle I can clearly see what appears to be a finger print like mark, only I think at the far end of the lens. When adjusting the zoom, I see the mark get bigger/smaller and closer/further away.


This has made me think whatever it is (hard to believe it could be a finger print) might only be at the entry point of the lens, and not inside it like I originally thought.


My question is, how hard is it to remove the lens in one of these units to test this theory, and are there any tricks I should look out for in particular?

 

[dyates69]

I think I may have found the culprit. Perhaps someone with more experience with these lamp based units could advise?


I removed the lamp which I'm told was replaced by the previous owner around 20 hours ago just to take a look. I noticed a slight brown burn looking mark on the left side of the case assembly and the lens shows a smeary residue when shining a torch in there (it's also a pink/purplish hue overall). I'm not sure if this would come through as a loss of contrast in the projected image?


I suspect maybe the previous lamp exploded which may have caused this issue. I had a light go with a lens cleaning cloth and it didn't make a difference to the residue. I'm guessing maybe the residue I'm seeing is the lens coating that has been burnt.


Very disappointed as it's looking more and more like this isn't going to be fixable. Would appreciate any advice anyone might have. Would using a lens cleaning fluid be likely to remove the residue?

 

[dyates69]

For anyone interested in how it looks onscreen, I just took this photo. It's not quite as bad as this in person, must be due to exposure used, but it's very hard to watch.

 

[airscapes]

Can't give you any advice on this particular projector but I have disassembled a couple of much lower end projectors. It all depends on your mechanical ability, I was an Auto tech for years so I take anything apart without hesitation... sometimes ending in disaster

I would guess there are no repair facilities near you or you would have gone that route by now.. hopefully someone will jump in with more useful info.

 

[Dark Rider]

That stinks, sorry to hear it. Moisture problems would have been much easier to remediate. As someone who bought nightvision equipment for the military for a number of years, I can tell you that there are a number of tricks to get rid of moisture in optics. However, I'm at a loss when it comes to bulb residue. I don't think the bulb would be close enough in the light path to the lens to burn the lens coating though. Chances are that it can be removed, but it will probably require a pretty major disassembly. I

d recommend taking it to a qualified repair center.

 

[dyates69]

After thinking about it I suspect the residue at the bulb end of the lens probably wouldn't create this effect, since I expect it's not focussed light.


I've taken a couple of pictures of what I see when flashing a torch into the lens. One is on an angle where it appears fine, the other you can make out the fingerprint looking shape that I'm certain is causing the light scatter. The thing I can't figure out is if it is actually moisture, and where exactly it is in the lens assembly. Inside the zoom lens or outside.


Any ideas what it might be?

 

[airscapes]

Have you tired changing the position of the lens with the lens shift? I have never had a projector with shift so not really sure what is involved inside to achieve the shift but would be one of the things I would do to help assure the problem is the smear on the lens. The issue you have should not change as you move the image up and down.

 

[dyates69]

Yep did that thanks. No difference with lens shift. Zooming to minimum might make it a little better, it's hard to tell because as the image gets brighter, the problem is less obvious. Iris 3 mode (brightest) is actually the most watchable for this reason, but still halos a lot and there's a general milky film look over the entire image.

 

[airscapes]

Personally I would be taking the lid off at this point to see if the lens can be removed without much effort. It comes with 2 lens options so I would hope the lens could be removed for service without to much more disassemble like a camera. But that is me..

 

[rc30matt]

Sorry to hear about your problem. I presume its used? What does the seller say? Did you buy via paypal?

 

[dyates69]

Yeah it's used. Seller didn't have a problem with it prior to the shipping.