Runco LS-10d - Performance

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Art Feierman

Runco LS-10d Measured Brightness

Light canon time. That's a phrase few home theater projetors get accused of being. And most of those - entry level "cross-over" projectors. Nonetheless, the LS10d, powered with a 260 watt lamp, is just that - a relative light canon, compared to the average $2000, $5000 or even $10,000 projector. For example, it measured (comparing "best" modes), almost 3 times as bright as the 1300 lumen claiming JVC RS60 that was here last month. (But the Runco, per spec, is only supposed to be about 60% brighter, not 300%.)

The LS10 measured almost identically in "best" mode, as the RS7 did last year. This time our "best" mode lumen count, with the lens at mid-point on the zoom, and post calibration, worked out to 1465 lumens (besting the LS7's 1451 - of course that slight an error is well within measuring accuracy, never mind lamp variation).

After Mike's calibration, that 1465 lumens represents 25 total lumens more than their claim of 1440 lumens at D65. Tis rare we see projectors that beat claims - ok, if not rare, uncommon. The 1465 also means we only lost 14 lumens in the process of calibrating!

Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE for Various Color Temp Settings
5500	1299 @ 5485
6500	1479 @ 6423
7500	1619 @ 7385
9300	1808 @ 8929

Runco also claims 2100 lumens maximum. They didn't do quite as well there, but still managed to measure 1808 lumens with the lamp in its (native?) 9300K mode. Not exactly where you want to be, extremely thin on reds, but it's an extra 350 lumens if desperately needed. Here's how color temp affected brightness:

The Effect of low lamp (eco) mode on brightness:

LS-10d lumen Output (Eco Lamp, 6500 Color Temp):

1217 lumens measured, down from 1479 a drop of only about 18%.

That is interesting, as the projector says its two lamp modes are 230 and 260 watts about a 12% difference. Either way, an 18% drop is smaller than typical, with most projectors dropping 20-25% and often more.

Effect of zoom on lumen output (6500 Color Temp)
Zoom out	1337
Mid zoom	1479 lumens
Zoom in	1430

The Effect of lens zoom on brightness:

Strange! Normally lenses are brightest at wide angle, not so here, this projector measured brightest with the zoom at mid-point. Even stranger, the projector is brighter in telephoto, than wide angle. Still the entire variation is less than 10%. On projectors with very long zoom ranges (like 2:1) the drop from wide to tele can be more than 45%, and that affects placement decisions. It should not be a factor with the LS10 projector.