12K lumens enough for outdoor DCP

[Eric Wood]

Hello friends, I still have a lot to learn about DCP. We're being offered a used DCP projector w/ 12K lumens and I'm worried it won't be bright enough. It'll be throwing from a distance of about 90'. Does anyone have a quick opinion on whether it'll be bright enough for DCI standards? We're told it'll produce 30fl at the screen which they say is plenty for DCI, but I don't know if ambient light will effect that. Any thoughts?

[Barry Floyd]

I'd likely say no. I run Barco DP2K-23B's at my drive-in in Tennessee with 60 foot wide screens, and they're barely enough. My Barcos are rated at 24,500 lumens with 4,000 watt lamps. With all the tweaking on lamp alignment after changing lamps, the best I've ever been able to squeeze out of them was 13.2FL. I've got one that's luck to get 11FL with a new lamp.

That being said, before the days of Cinema digital projection, I had a guy who wanted to propose to his girl "on screen" and wanted to use an "office conference room projector" sitting on the roof of his Honda. I told him it wouldn't work, but he wanted to try anyway. He parks his Honda on Row 2, and I ran an extension cord about 150 feet from the ticket booth to his car. That dinky projector filled the screen side to side and top to bottom perfectly with a very good picture. I was impressed. She said YES.

[Eric Wood]

I'd likely say no. I run Barco DP2K-23B's at my drive-in in Tennessee with 60 foot wide screens, and they're barely enough. My Barcos are rated at 24,500 lumens with 4,000 watt lamps. With all the tweaking on lamp alignment after changing lamps, the best I've ever been able to squeeze out of them was 13.2FL. I've got one that's luck to get 11FL with a new lamp.

That being said, before the days of Cinema digital projection, I had a guy who wanted to propose to his girl "on screen" and wanted to use an "office conference room projector" sitting on the roof of his Honda. I told him it wouldn't work, but he wanted to try anyway. He parks his Honda on Row 2, and I ran an extension cord about 150 feet from the ticket booth to his car. That dinky projector filled the screen side to side and top to bottom perfectly with a very good picture. I was impressed. She said YES.

Mazel Tov! I should mention we have much smaller screens. 24' wide, 90' throw so we're not blowing the balloon up quite as much as you are. We use an 18K at another similar location and it does all right, I just worry that 12K maybe on the line. Thanks for your response!

[Dave Macaulay]

Throw distance doesn't much matter (except in fog...). Screen size does.
I kinda doubt 30 ft-L but who knows? You want 16 for a good image but more doesn't hurt.
And how critical is "perfect" image? Few DIs have 16 ft-L let alone 30.
I believe it will be acceptable.
I do not do MCGD calibration at DIs. Nobody has ever complained. Colour calibration just lowers light level and with typical outdoor screens that can be pretty severe. With 35mm you got what it was, and that was accepted. Mostly you want the brightest image you can get outdoors
Ambient light will make blacks less black but unless it's super bad the picture is ok.

[Marcel Birgelen]

The problem with the ratings of many projectors is that they are as reliable as the mileage ratings of your car manufacturer. So, a lot depends on what projector you're using, what kind of lens you're using, the screen you're using and how much ambient light there will be. In a dark environment with little to no ambient light and a descent screen, you're probably fine. Maybe you can tell us a bit about what projector you're planning to use?