NEC lenses

[Armand Daiguillon]

Hi all,

I'm moving a projector from one screen to another. (NEC 900C)
In the old auditorium it was 40 feet from the screen and the ceiling was 25 feet high- now it will be around 15 feet from the screen with a 12 foot high ceiling. - big difference. .

The lens installed is a NP-9LS20ZM1 but based on the service manual what I need is the NP-9LS12ZM1.
With the 12Z I should be able to fill the entire screen (16 foot wide screen) with the projector 17 feet away and not have sight line issues (if someone stands up I cant have them blocking the picture)

Looking up pricing on that lens gave me some sticker shock - $2300 for the lens.
Does anybody know if these can be found used somewhere ? Or if I have to buy this new one, is there any market to sell the one I have now ?

Ideas ?


Thanks !

[Steve Guttag]

The NC900C uses the same suite of lenses that the current .69" based projectors use (NC-1000, NC-1202, NC-1402...etc.) As such, there is bound to be a value to the lenses still and a potential used market. BTW, $2,300...that is way on the CHEAP side of the DCinema lens market, which is on the CHEAP side of professional projector market. Look at what the Rental and Staging projector people get to pay for projector lenses.

[Leo Enticknap]

Agreed with Steve: NEC lenses are cheap compared to Barco and Christie. The down side is that once they get to 7-8 years old, the risk of either the zoom or focus motor failing becomes significant. I encounter this once or twice a year on older Series 2 NECs (customer reports that either the zoom or focus stops working, and that turns out to be the reason why), but I can't recall ever having seen a lens motor failure on a Barco.

[Ryan Gallagher]

DCI lenses do come up on eBay with some regularity, but be sure to look for folks that accept returns or that clearly state fully tested/working (then eBay buyer protection should cover you).

Like Steve said, I also feel like 2300 is a bargain though, comparatively.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Chyna has tons of used NEC stuff available. Just get some sort of a guarantee on what ever you buy... If you do not want to spend new price, and that projector is actually a much newer design than the 900, and while I do not normally send people there, there are a bunch of Chinese dealers crawling around on Facebook you can send a message to and see what they want for one. Make it very clear it had better be a newer lens with at least some sort of warranty!!

[Gordon McLeod]

On the series two NEC lens the motor are available from Digikey and are fiddly as they are slightly longer but electrically the same and they are a metal gear box.

[Ioannis Syrogiannis]

Those motors might be the braking point of a lens, and unfortunately, last time I asked, there was no order/part number for those.
I have written on my notes that the controller was an MTL micro encoder MEH-17-500PC (Series ME, H for hollow shaft, 500 for pulse number and C for open collector output circuit). And for the motor I wrote down BFA1420 020PD53, but I couldn't make anything out of it. That was on a [...]20ZM.
For that reason, even if it's not my concern any more, I am happy that the lens is not as expensive as elsewhere.