Optoma HD8200 - Performance

Optoma HD8200 Brightness

The HD8200 measured as the second brightest projector- in "best" mode, of the projectors in this price class. Only the Sony VPL-HW10 was brighter, and only by 77 lumens. In fairness, while the Optoma's 525 lumens are second of the eleven projectors, five other models are very close, all with at least 482 lumens.

Here are the uncalibrated measurements for the HD8200 in the different preset modes, both lumens, and the measured color temperature for white (100 IRE). 6500K is the ideal temperature Unless otherwise noted, all measurements are taken with the projector lens at mid-point:

Brightness Measurements

Post calibration, User mode (set up for best viewing), measured 525 lumens @6481K.

Switching to low lamp, brightness drops approximately 27%. That reduced 525 lumens to 415 lumens.

The HD8200's weakness is in terms of being one of the dimmest projectors when you select a bright mode for dealing with ambient light. It's adjusted 660 lumens in its brightest mode, is only notable for being just half of Optoma's 1300 lumen claim. More to the point, in brightness it ranked it 9th out of 11 projectors in the mid-priced Class, in our recent Comparison Report.

Of course, brightness varies depending on the position of the zoom lens. All the measurements quoted above and below, except for these, are based on the zoom lens being in the middle (mid-point) of the zoom range. These were taken, pre-calibration (user mode):

Pre-Calibration(user mode)

In a case like that, the Optoma is doing about 409 lumens, but, to pick one of the brighter 3LCD projectors as an example, the Epson 6500UB would be just past mid-point, so approximately 490 lumens - in that situation, about 18% brighter than the HD8200.

Pre-calibration we measured these color temperatures (target is 6500K) over the grayscale range, for User mode:

Measured Color Temperatures