Is 3000 Lumens Good for a Projector?

Projector’s brightness is measured by lumens. Many projector beginners want to know that whether 3,000 lumen is good for a projector.

Before answering this question, we have to introduce the ANSI lumens.

ANSI lumens Measurement Method

ANSI lumens measure the luminous flux of a projector, and it is formulated and regulated by the American National Standards Institute.

Here is the measurement method of ANSI lumens.

Distance between the projector and the screen: 2.4 meters.
The image size screen should be 60 inches.
Measure the illuminance of each point on the nine intersections of the “field” of the screen with a light measuring pen.
Get the average of the lux readings, and multiply by the area. Then, you can get the brightness of the projected screen.

Here is the formula: ANSI lumens = average of Lux readings X image area in square meters.

As the image is shown below, the ANSI lumens = (L1+L2+L3+L4+L5+L6+L7+L8+L9)/9 (lux) x A (m^2). Please note that A (Area) = W * H (m^2)

By means of the introduction above, we can know that the ANSI lumens measure the brightness of the projection screen. However, there are many projector suppliers who label their products with light source lumens(measure the brightness of the light source instead of the projection image).

Is 3000 Lumens Good for a Projector?

If the lumens are measured by ANSI standard, then 3,000 ANSI lumens is good enough. However, if the lumens are measured by the light source, a projector with 3,000 ANSI lumens is not enough for daytime.

You can use the lumens to ANSI lumens converter to convert different brightness units.