Artists and content creators rely on several tools to produce the best kind of content/art. A digital projector is one such tool that they use to project quality images on different kinds of surfaces. They are also great since they break the monotony of having to rely on monitors and screens.
Below we look at five best digital projectors for artists.
Our Recommendations
- Artograph Flare150 Digital Art Projector – Best Overall
- ViewSonic PX700HD – Best In Bright Areas
- DBPower T20 1500 Lumens – Best In Price
- iDGlax iDG-787 – Best Multipurpose Projector
- Nebula Capsule Smart Mini Projector by Anker – Best In Portability
Top Pick – Artograph Flare150 Digital Art Projector
The Artograph Flare150 Digital is one of the most popular art projectors on the market, and it’s absolutely our #1 pick for 2024.
For starters, the Artograph Flare150 Digital is a step up from the Flare100 and focuses on increased brightness, and great resolution, but in a much more compact and portable size.
While it is not the brightest digital projector in the market since it is rated 150 lumens, it is most ideal for on-the-go situations thanks to its battery which can last upwards of 2.5 hours. Rather than viewing the brightness as a disadvantage, you would be happy to know that the Flare150 can give you up to 30,000 hours without you having to struggle with maintenance. Its highest resolution is 1280 x 720 (HD) which is usually perfectly fine for most applications.
You’re most likely to like the Artograph Flare150 because of its moderate pricing, its weight (1.1 lbs.), its sharp focus, and finally its built-in grids for positioning images correctly. It also includes an HDMI port and a USB port so that you have control over how you wish to deliver your content on the screen.
ViewSonic PX700HD
Gamers will love the ViewSonic PX700HD for various reasons, and one of the biggest of these reasons is the fact that it can project on screens of up to 300 inches diagonally. It can also deliver up to 3500 lumens of brightness which makes it an ideal choice for artists who foresee doing presentations in slightly bright areas. While it has been labeled as a home entertainment product, the ViewSonic PX700HD can be used on a variety of different occasions.
Retailing at around $500 in most online stores, this digital projector is favored by a number of artists because it delivers full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution. Coupled with its exclusive SuperColor technology, it equally ensures you get a wide color gamut and in turn beautiful and accurate reproduction of images in any environment. Also worth noting is its high dynamic contrast ratio of 12000:1 which means that its blacks will be clearly noticeable. Another interesting feature about the ViewSonic PX700HD is that it is also capable of letting you enjoy 3D games and movies, thanks to its Full HD 3D compatibility.
It boasts a throw distance of 2.5 feet to 25 feet, something which some digital projectors like the Artograph Flare150 Digital Art Projector might struggle to achieve. Its lens allows up to 1.1 times optical zoom to provide you with sharp images in cases where you want to slightly view larger images.
DBPower T20 1500 Lumens
DBPower’s T20 1500 lumens digital projector is one of the cheapest you can get in the market. It is simple, convenient, and powerful for a projector of its size. It is slightly shorter than the length of your hand in terms of width, and with that being the longest side of the digital projector, you can bet it is quite compact.
Inside the box, DBPower includes a user manual, an HDMI cable, a remote control, a power cable, a 3-in-1 AV cable, and a screw. True, it’s not much for a digital projector, but this is more than enough for a projector of its size. It also has a number of useful IO ports such as the AV port, a headphone jack, two USB ports, an SD card slot, an HDMI port, and a VGA port just in case you use devices that only work with VGA.
Quality-wise, it is a bit difficult to place the DBPower T20 because, at the price it retails, it is already giving users much more than they had ever asked for. Its imaging technology is the TFT LCD and delivers a brightness of 1500 lumens as its name suggests. However, it has a low contrast ratio of 1000:1 and while it supports resolutions of up to 1920 x 1080, its native resolution is 800 x 480 with a projection ratio of 1.4:1. You can get screen sizes of 32 to 176 inches, and this makes it a good and cheap option for an artist.
iDGlax iDG-787
The iDG-787 digital projector from iDGlax is in all sense a multipurpose projector because it can be used on a wide variety of occasions. The longest side of the iDGlax iDG-787 is a mere 8.19 inches and the entire product weighs just 2 lbs. It can deliver an image size of 30″ up to 100″ at a projection distance of 6 to 9 feet.
Whereas it is marketed as a Full HD (1920 x 1080) digital projector, its native resolution lies at 800 x 480, but this does not prevent it from handling your 1080p content. The iDGlax iDG-787 is also partly unique because it comes bundled with its own set of speakers which means that you might not have to invest in external speakers if you are content with what iDGlax is offering you.
It equally has a long life of 20,000 hours which translates to 14 years. This may be because it can deliver 2,000 lumens which is a sweet spot for any artist who wants a digital projector that is “just enough”. The contrast ratio of 1000:1 may not be all too enticing because we know this value is higher in other digital projectors, but since it is primarily built for entertainment use, there is a high chance this won’t be too much of a bother to you even as an artist. It is also interesting to note that you can use the USB port for flash drives only as it does not support data transfers.
Nebula Capsule Smart Mini Projector by Anker
If you happened to have fallen in love with the other digital projectors because of their visual outlook, you might want to think again. The Nebula Capsule Smart Mini Projector by Anker comes in a capsule shape which makes it look compact, portable, sleek, and at the same time, stylish. Anker advertises it as the Soda Can-Sized Pocket Projector, and for good reason too.
Because of its unique shape, the bottom half section of the digital projector incorporates a 360º speaker which allows you to have a fully immersive experience. Out of the box, the speakers can be sufficient if all you wish to achieve is a mini-presentation, but since it does include a lot of IO ports, you might need to be creative with how you intend to handle audio for a slightly large crowd. It supports a native resolution of 854 x 480 and has a lamp life of 30,000 hours which is not entirely surprising owing to its 100 ANSI lumen bulb that can project up to 100 inches of content.
As it is portable, it is equipped with a 5200mAh battery that can last you about 4 hours in battery mode. This means that as an artist, you could equally get ideally the same kind of battery life too. The projector also runs on Android making it smartphone friends and increasing compatibility with your home devices.
Final Thoughts
While there are more powerful and more expensive digital projectors in the market, artists are more likely to find portable variants of digital projectors helpful. This is because they can easily showcase their projects by just relying on everyday devices such as their smartphones. It is also worth saying that the brightness of the digital projector you are planning to get will determine the environments where you can use the projector.
The iDG-787 digital projector, for instance, is popularly marketed as an entertainment projector because it is not too bright and will only favor people who use it in slightly dark environments. However, one thing that is evident about digital projectors for artists is that you need not drain your pocket too much to get the best projector in the market.
Even though some of the mentioned projectors go for as much as $500, there is a number that you can get for under $100 and still rely on them for everyday use. You also shouldn’t be too worried about the lamp life because, by the time the projector hits the 20,000 or 30,000 hours, you will probably have already moved to a newer product. In addition, this does not mean that the projectors will not be functional once they hit 30,000 hours.
