I bought a brand new 3M 1608 Overhead Projector, with 2000 lumens. I am using a Sharp QA-1650 Projection Panel and in the dark it looks incredible.

Please tell me if you have used this model.

not the same model, but same idea.
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=25290
I do agree price/performance is amazing, considering that i only paid 50 bucks for my dated 9200 projector.

Yea I used an old overhead projector and did a retrofit - And used a QA-1200 LCD Projection Panel
for the LCD

I used a Icecap HQI ballast and 250w Metal Halide Lamp for the retrofit



So much hot air, I wanted to vent it out side







Yea its a great idea to get started, but then the lamps get costly unless you
do the retrofit, and then the rez is low on the old Projection Panels, mine
was only 640x480, and mine was not true color, so color is a little off, I think
mine was only 2 million colors even tho its looked just fine 90% of the
time, and contrast was bad, after you get hooked on it tho, there is no going
back to TV - BTW - The 3M Overhead Projectors are nice units, or at least the
units I had were - one was an older 90s model with a fold down arm and
rounded front - super thick ABS plastic, I think it was a 3M 2100,
I think the one in the picture is an 1970s model 3m Over head Projector
the 3M Model 567

Good Luck, --- And if you do the retrofit watch the heat, and use some X10
lexan for UV shielding