Lumens and Ansi Lumens – What is the difference

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While choosing a projector, you must have come across the brightness specifications where some projectors are ANSI lumens while others only display lumens. It’s hard to recognize and differentiate, especially for newcomers who don’t have in-depth knowledge about projector brightness. Furthermore, a lack of knowledge about different brightness levels often makes it difficult for buyers to evaluate projector options.

To find the most suitable projector, you need to have a deeper understanding of brightness and the units related to it because light intensity determines the clarity and output quality of the image. To solve the above problem, we will guide you to understand ANSI lumens and lumens.

What are Lumens and Ansi Lumen?

Ansi Lumens

Lumens is a standard unit that describes the brightness of a projector, or in other words, it represents the measurement of the projector’s luminous flux. It basically tells you how much light your projector can produce to maintain a bright view in any lighting condition. When you look at projectors from most reputable brands, you will see that almost every device has an ANSI lumen designation. You should not confuse this Lumens and ANSI Lumens because it still displays brightness measures but with an international standard.

ANSI is the abbreviation for American National Standard Institute – the American National Standards Institute, they have established a standard measure to allow measurement of light produced by projectors. This is the standard measure accepted by projector brands in the market and this is why you will see brightness specifications accompanied by ANSI lumen units. One important reason that ANSI lumen is preferred by every brand is because it provides a certain level of brightness when measuring the vividness of a projector-specific image.

However, it is said that the assessment of ANSI brightness is completely subjective and it varies according to the optical power of the human eye. This rating method prevents the projector from overloading and eliminating a good contrast ratio.

All projectors with the ANSI lumen designation are rigorously tested by the National Institute of Standards under various conditions, and the combination of all results gives true ANSI lumens. In addition to brightness, the projector’s contrast is also evaluated and results are provided to support the actual lumen rating.

This is why ANSI lumens are favored by every manufacturer in the world as it provides more accurate results than standard lumen units. But you will be surprised to know that some experts often think that ANSI lumens can often be wrong under certain lighting conditions.

Because when ANSI lumens are measured, it doesn’t consider variables like ambient light conditions, screen material, eye fatigue, and many other factors. Therefore, ANSI lumens cannot be used as a final unit of brightness standard because different lighting conditions can change the clarity and vividness of the projected image.

Lumen

The unit Lumens is often associated with projector brightness which is a general term that defines the vividness or luminous output of a projector. Essentially, the lumen unit gives users a basic perspective of the level of vividness they will receive when they project content on a white screen.

While it’s not as precise as ANSI lumens, it shows the average measurement of the light the projector will deliver on the screen. Unlike the ANSI lumen unit, lumen is denoted as lm and it is measured by evaluating the total amount of light produced by the projector per unit of time. Simply put, lumens are created by measuring luminous flux, which measures electromagnetic waves that humans can sense.

Even though lumen measures visible electromagnetic waves, it is still inaccurate because it does not evaluate different conditions. Many experts consider lumens to be a relative measurement that shows an average or hypothetical result based on the average person’s light sensitivity. Most importantly, the brightness provided to the projector also depends on the ambient light conditions and distance from the screen. So, if you place the projector at a significant distance, then a lot of light will be lost when it reaches the screen, thereby providing lower brightness than what is mentioned in the specifications.

To date, there is no international authority that controls the lumen rating of projectors, so you cannot completely trust the lumen numbers on the projector. Many manufacturers include fake lumen figures in their projector specifications to attract customers.

Many Amazon sellers stock their projectors with fake lumens so they can attract buyers and get as many sales as possible.

Conclude

When you are planning to buy a projector, it will be easy to go for devices with ANSI lumens as it will tell you the exact brightness level. Whereas with lumens, you don’t know what level of brightness you’ll get because many sellers amp up their lumen numbers to attract their buyers.

Which brightness level best suits your needs?

When you buy a projector, it’s important to remember that you can’t just go out and buy a high lumen device and get great picture quality. There are many factors that influence the level of brightness needed to deliver a quality image. However, the main thing to note is that two factors affect the brightness requirements of a projector:

Ambient light of the main projection environment

Screen size

Regarding brightness, the ambient light in the main projection environment is something to keep in mind when it is not controlled, it can damage the image emitted by the projector.

Spaces with lots of light need higher brightness to deliver quality images. In darker spaces, you can use lower brightness, combined with a higher contrast ratio. The ideal lumens range for multi-purpose spaces is 2000 to 4000 lumens.

In terms of screen size, higher brightness is recommended for the projector to deliver quality images.

Some suggestions when choosing a projector with Ansi Lumens parameters

Projector typeBrightness Ansi Lumens
Home projector1000 to 1500
Projector for education3000 to 4000
Office projector3000 to 5000
Projectors for restaurants and halls4000 to 5000 +

 

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