Joined
·
4,580 Posts
Well, here is my review of the Panamorph P752. My review is hobbled by the fact that my current lens (1.2:1 fixed) projects an extremely large image, way too big for the P752's entrance aperture. This makes adjustments a pain in the neck, as I have to move the lens to view my desktop (no, I haven't assembled the rail yet).
When I got the box, I first noticed the sound of some things jangling inside. I thought, uh oh, broken glass, but a closer listen told me it was the sound of little pieces of metal (the components of the rail assembly). So don't freak out when you get your box. When I opened the box, I saw that the lens was packed in dense foam rubber, with raised cones. A very sturdy package. I noticed what looked like a kind of smudge on the lens. This was from a small amount of oil that leaked out. I'd say about half a teaspoon total. It was around 94 degrees yesterday, so I'm not too surprised that the heat causaed the oil to expand. Now that it's been at around 70 degrees for over 24 hours, it looks like there is just a faint trace of oil. I'm just telling you what I've seen.
I had to electronically shrink the image with YXY to avoid vignetting. I watched scenes from Blade, North By Northwest, Akira, The Gift, The Road To El Dorado and the overscan pattern from Avia. Thge picture appears sharper, or maybe I should say, more detailed. The effect was a smoother look to the image, which is pretty much what I expected. I spent over a year with the ISCO I lens and the P752 does not produce a softness like the ISCO. The image is very clear. I also had no problem obtaining a sharp image. When looking at the lens, it looks like there is no oil in the assembly. It is that clear. Color saturation appeared to be improved. I really liked that. I did notice some ghosting in the image with my desktop icons. This was at the lateral edges of the lens. Towards the center, it disappeared. I suspect that if I had a normal size lens, this would disappear. My image is very, very large.
Overall, I saw an image that appeared to be more detailed and thus more film-like. Visibility of pixels was reduced, color saturation appeared to be improved and the image had more depth. The effect is undeniable. As to the increase in brightness, I had to shrink my image to get it onscreen, but of course, the image per square inch is brighter and with more punch. I tried the half Panamorph/ half regular lens, split screen. With the P752, the image was clearly more dense and had more depth. I think people who saw the pictures from the panamorph party know what I mean.
The lens itself comes with a bracket that attaches to the main lens on each side via two screw knobs. You can adjust the height of the Panamorph (while it is on the bracket) as well as its tilt. Trust me, this isn't rocket science. I had trouble getting the correct tilt, but that's because I couldn't see either edge of the image. I tried to adjust the tilt until I obtained a fairly equal barrel distortion. Barrel distortion is a curved distention in the horizontal plane. The ISCO had a similar issue: pincushion, which is a concave "pinch" in the vertical dimension. The barrel distortion didn't bother me, as it wasn't extreme. This is a total non issue if you use a constant width scheme in your HT, since the edges of the image should be eaten by your lateral masking. For people who are picky and use a constant height approach, you may want to look at masking the sides off.
This is not by any means an exhaustive review. Overall, I am very impressed, particularly with the clarity of the image, which blows away the ISCO I. Of course, the big downer for me, is that I need another lens for my DLP. But I am impressed with what I've seen. I would say to people who are anxious, this is not like flying a 747 with no experience. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif It's basically very simple: place the P752 in front of your projector's lens. Adjust the height until the image is centered through the P752. Adjust the tilt until you have an even barrel distortion (this will sound familiar to ISCO users) and an even compression (the tilt changes the compression). I will assemble the rail system and post that later (tomorrow, if not today).
When I got the box, I first noticed the sound of some things jangling inside. I thought, uh oh, broken glass, but a closer listen told me it was the sound of little pieces of metal (the components of the rail assembly). So don't freak out when you get your box. When I opened the box, I saw that the lens was packed in dense foam rubber, with raised cones. A very sturdy package. I noticed what looked like a kind of smudge on the lens. This was from a small amount of oil that leaked out. I'd say about half a teaspoon total. It was around 94 degrees yesterday, so I'm not too surprised that the heat causaed the oil to expand. Now that it's been at around 70 degrees for over 24 hours, it looks like there is just a faint trace of oil. I'm just telling you what I've seen.
I had to electronically shrink the image with YXY to avoid vignetting. I watched scenes from Blade, North By Northwest, Akira, The Gift, The Road To El Dorado and the overscan pattern from Avia. Thge picture appears sharper, or maybe I should say, more detailed. The effect was a smoother look to the image, which is pretty much what I expected. I spent over a year with the ISCO I lens and the P752 does not produce a softness like the ISCO. The image is very clear. I also had no problem obtaining a sharp image. When looking at the lens, it looks like there is no oil in the assembly. It is that clear. Color saturation appeared to be improved. I really liked that. I did notice some ghosting in the image with my desktop icons. This was at the lateral edges of the lens. Towards the center, it disappeared. I suspect that if I had a normal size lens, this would disappear. My image is very, very large.
Overall, I saw an image that appeared to be more detailed and thus more film-like. Visibility of pixels was reduced, color saturation appeared to be improved and the image had more depth. The effect is undeniable. As to the increase in brightness, I had to shrink my image to get it onscreen, but of course, the image per square inch is brighter and with more punch. I tried the half Panamorph/ half regular lens, split screen. With the P752, the image was clearly more dense and had more depth. I think people who saw the pictures from the panamorph party know what I mean.
The lens itself comes with a bracket that attaches to the main lens on each side via two screw knobs. You can adjust the height of the Panamorph (while it is on the bracket) as well as its tilt. Trust me, this isn't rocket science. I had trouble getting the correct tilt, but that's because I couldn't see either edge of the image. I tried to adjust the tilt until I obtained a fairly equal barrel distortion. Barrel distortion is a curved distention in the horizontal plane. The ISCO had a similar issue: pincushion, which is a concave "pinch" in the vertical dimension. The barrel distortion didn't bother me, as it wasn't extreme. This is a total non issue if you use a constant width scheme in your HT, since the edges of the image should be eaten by your lateral masking. For people who are picky and use a constant height approach, you may want to look at masking the sides off.
This is not by any means an exhaustive review. Overall, I am very impressed, particularly with the clarity of the image, which blows away the ISCO I. Of course, the big downer for me, is that I need another lens for my DLP. But I am impressed with what I've seen. I would say to people who are anxious, this is not like flying a 747 with no experience. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif It's basically very simple: place the P752 in front of your projector's lens. Adjust the height until the image is centered through the P752. Adjust the tilt until you have an even barrel distortion (this will sound familiar to ISCO users) and an even compression (the tilt changes the compression). I will assemble the rail system and post that later (tomorrow, if not today).
