The Artist_s Magazine 2016-03__

March 2016 63

road test BY JOHN SALMINEN

A LITTLE WHILE AGO an editor at

h e Artist’s Magazine asked me to

review the Inspire800 Art Projector,

a product of Artograph. I’m glad I

accepted the of er.

h e projector is very small—5½

x5½x2 inches—and weighs a little

over a pound. It has 800 lumen

LED lights that I’ve been told will

last for 30,000 hours. h e range of

projection size is from 25 inches to

100 inches with 1280x800 WXGA

(1280x800 with 16 million colors).

h ere’s a small remote control, and

the projector can be mounted to

a tripod for stability. It can accept

input via many systems, including

HDMI, lightning to HDMI and

USB.

Making Professional

Presentations

h e small size amazed me, especially

considering everything the projector

is capable of doing and how well it

does it all. I'm frequently asked to do

presentations, and for years this was

simple. I brought my 35 mm slides,

and the organizations provided the

slide projector and screen. If the

room was darkened sui ciently, the

images were accurate.

Slides became antiquated,

however, and organizations no lon-

ger had slide projectors available.

Eventually it became necessary to

move to a digital format, and the

results were not always positive.

h e digital images were good but,

depending on the equipment the

organization owned and the level of

expertise of the person using that

equipment, the projected images

often appeared washed out, with

af ected. h ere

are options that

help me control

the crispness of

the image, which is

important. Too much sharp-

ness can occasionally misrepresent a

painting. If the projector is not abso-

lutely square with the screen, the

keystone feature adjusts for the opti-

cal ef ect that would otherwise show

the painting as a trapezoid instead

of a rectangle or square. All of these

adjustments can be quickly made by

using the small handheld remote.

h e Inspire800 can be con-

nected wirelessly to Windows and

android devices and to a Mac or

iPhone using a lightning-to-HDMI

connector cable. h e Inspire800 has

the capability of projecting videos,

including three-dimensional ones.

Music can be set to slide shows with

a connection to an MP3 player or

computer using the appropriate cable.

Projecting Photographs or

Drawings to Enlarge

Many artists use projectors as a

drawing aid. It's a time saver and

potentially a benei cial shortcut

in some situations. My i rst use of

the Artograph occurred during my

public school-teaching days. My

students and I were asked to do

a large wall mural. I asked each

poor color or contrast. Further and

worse, the image was sometimes dis-

torted due to a screen that was not

square with the projector.

Now I can easily bring this

Inspire800 Art Projector with me

and can be assured of a high-quality

presentation. h e room still needs to

be darkened, but Inspire’s 800 lumens

make it possible to project crisp

images in a room with some ambient

light. h e image can be enlarged

to more than eight feet, which is

big enough for most situations. h e

clarity and sharpness of even these

large projected images is impressive,

and I’m thrilled to be able to present

my work with coni dence, knowing

that the paintings will be accurately

represented.

As I’ve become more familiar

with the Inspire800 Art Projector,

I’ve learned to use at least some of its

many helpful features. If needed, I

can i ne-tune the projected images

by adjusting the color. Focus is

easy—I simply need to slide a small

lever left or right. When I make

these adjustments, the projector

is not moved, so alignment isn’t

Small but Mighty

Whether you’re giving a presentation of your work or projecting a photograph onto a surface

in preparation for a drawing, the Artograph Inspire800 Art Projector gets the job done.

LEFT: The Inspire800

projector by Artograph

measures 5½x5½x2

inches and weighs a

little over a pound.