Does anyone know where I can buy this projector? Only the P150 is available in US/Canada, I guess.

Also, if someone has one of this, does this model accept both 220V and 110-120V, i.e. by internal voltage switch?

-- Fred Lee (leefred@cadvision.com), December 19, 2001

Answers

Canada has one of the strictest electrical codes in the world administered by CSA (Canadian Standards Association). When the P300 was imported to Canada it was 120v only. You may be able to get a P300 that will work on 120v from another country but be careful you do not end up with a 220v one.

I have the P300IR and I like it very much. I prefer the straight trays as they are very easy to load, edit and take up very little space.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), December 19, 2001.

The P300 is not a patch on the Pradovit 2000/2002 or earlier top of the line Leica projectors. My advice would be to buy one of them secondhand if you can. I agree with John about the straight magazines. Why the Carousels have become the standard is beyond me.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), December 20, 2001.

Try www.robertwhite.co.uk

There are a ton of threads on this topic in photo.net

The bottom line? A P300 plus SuperColorPlan lens will get you 95% of the image quality of a top of the line P2000, quality that blows the Kodak competition out of the water. For $1200-1500 more you can have the P2002 body, which has industrial build quality. The P300s are kind of flimsy, though perhaps adequate for home use.

I have one. I also have the old Carousel RT300. I disagree with Robin, because the Carousel offers easy access/fast forwarding to any slide and the feed mechanism is less prone to jamming. This may not be an issue with the P2002.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), December 20, 2001.

easy access/fast forwarding to any slide and the feed mechanism is less prone to jamming

Forwarding is surely just the same. Pull out lever, push or pull magazine in the direction you want? Never had mine jam (P2002 or CA2502). Editing is perhaps a little more difficult, since to remove a slide when you are projecting it from a straight magazine requires you to pull the lever out, unlike with the carousel when you just lift it out when it appears out of the gate. Carousel projectors have to have much larger footprint than the European type and require expensive magazines which waste a lot of space and come in crappy cardboard boxes, unlike the nice, plastic, dust-sealed cases for straight magazines which are also designed to stack nicely. I know, I am in a minority....

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), December 21, 2001.