dianaschnuth

Back in November, I saw a tweet from Glyn Evans of the iPhoneography blog:

I saw the photos of the projections — and the projector itself — and I was hooked.

I immediately backed the project. I knew I’d want that. For $25, I got a projector and one wheel of photos. I hoped additional wheels would be relatively cheap, as I could totally see me using this at, say, birthday parties as a kind of kitschy background.

The Projecteo was supposed to ship in February 2013, but experienced some delays due to manufacturing issues. I wasn’t too upset, as I understand that these things happen, and the Projecteo team was forthcoming in their updates on Kickstarter.

Finally, on April 24th (two days after my birthday!), I got the email that instructed me to select my seven Instagram photos for inclusion on my Projecteo wheel. Yay! Since I doubted I’d get the Projecteo in time for my 10th wedding anniversary party in one month, I didn’t select photos of my husband and myself on May 24th in years past. Instead, I named my wheel “Vacations” and selected photos of our vacations over the years: Boston, Tokyo, Hawaii, Mexico, and Aruba.

I didn’t expect to get my Projecteo so fast! It arrived on May 7:

I noticed that my wheel had tiny print in the center that said, “704_P_1_W1” rather than “Vacations” as I had thought it would. Slightly disappointing. But still, it was awesome to see a tiny projector with a tiny wheel of tiny photos from my Instagram account!

I waited until dark to test the projection itself. I found a nice, white wall in my kitchen, set up the Projecteo on the kitchen table, and found something to occupy my time until sunset.

Finally, when it seemed dark enough in my kitchen, I gave it a try.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed. More than a little. There was way more vignetting than I was counting on.  The image was not as sharp as I had hoped, although I should have expected as much from an image less than a half a centimeter wide. Even granting that I was projecting onto a glossy white wall instead of a matte white projection screen, I had expected a clearer image.

As a disclaimer here, I do own a Lomo LC-A and two Holgas, among several other “toy” cameras, so I understand the allure of vignetting and imperfections like light leaks and iffy focus.

The big question: Will I use it? Maybe in small spaces as a novelty, but I don’t intend to buy another wheel for my Projecteo. Right now, it’s sitting front and center in my camera collection, along with all the other cameras and equipment that do work, and look awesomely kitschy, but aren’t always practical.