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GPX PJ308W 1080p
Mini Projector
$89 gpx.com, walmart.com
Projectors have always kind of lived in
the world of fancy expensive things that
you just usually can’t justify purchasing.
With LED light sources getting cheaper
and more powerful all the time, that’s
changing. Now you can find affordable
small projectors with long-lasting LED
light sources for pretty much any job you
can imagine.
The GPX PJ308 is very cheap as far
as projectors go, at just under $90 from
Walmart. It has plenty of the features you’d
expect, such as multiple HDMI inputs,
a plain old VGA input, the ability to play
some media directly off an SD card or
USB, and a remote for easy adjustments.
The projection size is advertised as 150"
diagonal and in my use, the image was
crisp at that size. Sound isn’t particularly
powerful, but again, at this price I wasn’t
expecting a whole lot. On the plus side, it
has Bluetooth connectivity if you want to
pair an external Bluetooth speaker.
This projector only pushes about 2,000
lumens, so you’ll need to have a nicely
reflective screen and a well darkened room
if you want a great viewing experience.
However, at this price, this seems like the
perfect projector to embed in your projects
that can operate at night or in a controlled
environment. This is the kind of thing you
won’t mind sacrificing to a Pepper’s ghost
illusion in your front yard. —Caleb Kraft
125
make.co
Portable RGB Video/
Photography Lights
$13–$29 amazon.com
Buying lighting for YouTube videos and
product photography can be daunting:
There are so many options, and prices
typically are rather high. These little RGB
panel lights really caught my attention with
their sub-$15 price tag. I bought Opiheyoo
LVL R73, but similar units are sold under
the Ulanzi, Simorr, and Lewinner brands.
When I dug into them, I found many
features to really like. You can switch
between RGB and cool/warm white
settings, which is nice so you don’t lose
your usual white in between sessions.
There’s a display that shows brightness,
color temp, and battery life. They fit in a hot
shoe, but also have a shoe notch on top so
they can be stacked, or you can mount a
microphone on top. And finally, they have a
strong magnet in the back so you can just
slap them onto a magnetic surface and not
worry about mounting them.
The battery life is decent at over 2 hours,
and the color range is fantastic. They’re not
quite bright enough to be considered studio
lighting but for a vlogger, or someone
filming their DIY projects, they’re kind of
perfect. At these prices, you can go ahead
and slap one or two of these onto your
table saw to get a cool lighting effect for a
shot. —Caleb Kraft
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