Davis DL450: Great Projector Lamp Inside.

I recently tested out an older projector, the DAVIS DL-450. This projector came out in 1999 and retailed for around 7 grand, which is a lot of cash for a projector that weighs ten-pounds, has an SVGA resolution of 800x600 pixels, and utilizes a projector lamp that only pumps out 600 ANSI Lumens. But, then again, this projector came out in 1999 making it somewhat of a miracle worker back then.

The projector lamp inside the DL-450 is special and unique to this projector in a lot of ways. The lamp itself is a 120W lamp with a life of 4000 – 6000 hours. As far as we know this is one of the first projectors in the world to offer a 6000 hours UHP projector lamp in its design, making the Davis DL-450 a trailblazer in the projector world. Myprojectorlamps.com does supply a lamp for this particular projector, in case you’re wondering, and all of our 120W lamps last 6000 hours.

Despite the fact that this projector was way ahead of its time in regards to projector lamp quality and life, it is so typically 1999 when it comes to contrast, a factor vitally important in projectors these days. The contrast ratio for this projector is a dismal, are you ready for this? A dismal 230:1 when the projector is used in economy mode. We watched The Machinist starring the best new method actor in Hollywood, Christian Bale and it was really pitiful. The movie was fantastic, but we had to stop the film eventually when the scenes were centered in the dark factory where Bale’s character works - we couldn’t see half the screen in certain scenes! it was just ridiculous. I suppose we could’ve bumped the projector lamp up into the full-on mode for those scenes, which would make the contrast ratio 500:1 but we decided to just watch the rest of the movie on our Sanyo PLV-Z2.

Overall however, and especially when using PC applications, the Davis DL-450 did work very well. Here at myprojectorlamps.com we are extremely fond of Davis projectors and sell lamps for just about every model Davis has ever come out with. Davis’ current line of projectors are a wonderful value and the company should remain a top player for years to come.