Epson MG-850HD Projector – Performance

The MG-850HD is rated at 2800 lumens.  This is quite bright for a multimedia projector and almost unheard of in a home theater projector.  While we did not achieve that rating in our measurements, we did manage to measure 2611 lumens in Dynamic mode (the brightest) at full wide zoom.  This output did not vary much over the full (albeit limited) zoom range.  We measured 2553 lumens at mid zoom and 2542 lumens at full telephoto zoom.  This performance was consistent with other recently reviewed Epson projectors, where Epson’s measured versus claimed lumen output is usually closer than most of the competition.  Consistent with our other reviews, all other measurements were made at mid zoom.  Using Game mode, the output dropped to 1820 lumens, which is still bright enough for most daytime use.  Living Room mode, also a popular mode for daytime use, measured 1774 lumens.  Surprisingly, Cinema mode came in at 1884 lumens.  As was the case with previous Epson models, the decent color accuracy in Dynamic mode makes it a more usable mode than it is with some of the competition, thus expanding both the size of room and degree of ambient light that the MG-850HD can handle.  The MG-850HD can also be put into a “Business” mode, which replaces the Game and Living Room color modes with Presentation and Blackboard.  Presentation measured 1997 lumens and Blackboard was the lowest of all the modes at 1432 lumens.

Dropping the lamp into Eco brightness mode resulted in a 23.3% drop in lumen output, corresponding to a measurement of 1958 lumens in Dynamic mode, which is still very bright.