LG CF181D Lens Throw

Posted on February 20, 2010 By Art Feierman

LG CF181D Lens Throw

For the classic 100 inch diagonal 16:9 screen, the front of the LG projector can be placed as close as 9 feet 10 inches, or as far back, as 17 feet 10 inches. Note, that means the lens is relatively short throw. Few home projectors can get any closer to a 100 inch screen than 9 feet 10, but, on the other hand 17 feet 10 inches as a maximum distance, puts the projector in the same class as the Sony projector competition, which also can’t be placed particularly far back.

Thus, a significant percentage of folks who might want to rear shelf mount, likely won’t be able to. Still, plenty of those folk will be fine, as long as their rooms aren’t too deep, or their screen sizes small. By comparison, the Epson and Panasonic projectors can get out to 21 feet, and 19.8 feet respectively (that’s from memory). That extra 3, or 2 feet can make a difference.

Still, one must consider placement flexibility to be very good.

DLA-CF181D Lens Shift

The CF181D offers vertical lens shift only, which, for 97% of people should be just fine. According to the manual, which has the minimum to say on the subject, the LG projector can position from 20% of a screen height above the top, to the same 20% below the bottom, of the screen surface.

For a 100″ diagonal 16:9 screen, that works out to just a tiny bit less than 10 inches above or below the screen surface (screen height is over 49.5 inches tall).

That’s a good amount of vertical lens shift. Better than many, but not as much as some of the most flexible (Panasonic and Epson come to mind), but there are plenty of others that can at least slightly beat the LG (including, I think, the JVCs, but, those are close enough to probably not matter).