On Sat, 07 Nov 1998 13:20:11 -0600, "Paul" wrote:

>Recently go tback into taking 35mm slides and bought a Kodak Carousel with
>standard lens. This lens looks *very* basic to me.
>
>The question I have is "Am I doing justice to the quality of my camera lens
>by projecting slides through something clearly inferior ?" Does a projector
>lens have to be as good as the camera lens ? I can see in issues like flare
>this is clearly not the case. Also they are obviously required over a
>limited image range. Still, I have this nagging doubt that projection image
>reporoduction is compromized by the projector lens.

It is, no matter how good the projection lens is...! ;-)
And, then, there is that film curvature problem...
If you want to go all-out, glass-mount the slides to
hold them flat, use a premium flat-field projection lens,
make sure the screen is flat and well-aligned with the
slide and lens, and make sure the condensers in the
projector are matched to the FL of the lens for best
illumination evenness. A matte-white screen will give
the best sharpness and widest angle of view, but not the
brightest image. Short of this, you can do well with
a good-quality curved-field lens (assuming you leave the
slides in the original mounts). Adding a black paper
"aperture" to the lens (with a hole about right for
stopping the lens down about one stop) will improve
sharpness at least some. The Kodak lens isn't terrible,
but a $200 Schneider will look better!