When I was in elementary school, some teachers had overhead projectors. I always wanted one. Sometimes I see them at Goodwill here. The ones I saw at school usually were usually gray 3M brand, brown Buhl, Eiki, or Apollo Eclipse.

Later most of these were phased out for smart boards or projectors.

Also in elementary school there were some small projectors called DuKane MicroMatic II. I guess they were film projectors? They had a fan in the top, for the cooling.

I quite like my overhead projector. It just works. No computer to crash or refuse to communicate with peripherals, etc. The only "problems" I had with it are burnt out lamps and power outages. Oh, and the occasional dry marker. Otherwise, it does the job. Why replace it ? (I do have more modern technology as well, but the projector is still in use).

Also, the magic of a real slide show. I'm talking about 35mm slides in a projector like the Kodak Carousel. The image quality greatly exceeds most run-of-the-mill computer projectors. Of course, there is the hassle of making slides, but the end result is stunning. I still have one of those, but I seldom use it.

I quite like my overhead projector. It just works. No computer to crash or refuse to communicate with peripherals, etc. The only "problems" I had with it are burnt out lamps and power outages. Oh, and the occasional dry marker. Otherwise, it does the job. Why replace it ? (I do have more modern technology as well, but the projector is still in use).

Also, the magic of a real slide show. I'm talking about 35mm slides in a projector like the Kodak Carousel. The image quality greatly exceeds most run-of-the-mill computer projectors. Of course, there is the hassle of making slides, but the end result is stunning. I still have one of those, but I seldom use it.

The halogen bulbs of them used to burn out sometimes, when turned on. I think some models had a secondary bulb that could be switched on if the first burned out. I remember teachers having to send students to the media center for replacement bulbs before a lecture begin due to the bulb burn out.

One teacher had a clear panel over the projector that would show what was on their computer screen. Others used clear transparency, which they either printed on with the computer printer, or wrote on. Some wrote directly to the glass. Others had a big roll of clear plastic that they rolled up as they filled it up. Then I guess when clean roll was out, they replaced it.

I did use an overhead in a class for a speech visual aid. I printed on a transparency a color diagram from the internet. I think it was an Apollo overhead I used.

Yes, the downside to the overhead projector is cleaning the transparencies afterwards. Once you get a system going, it is not bad, but you still have to clean every one individually. Oh, and wait until your next shower to really clean off the ink from your fingers.

The halogen bulbs of them used to burn out sometimes, when turned on. I think some models had a secondary bulb that could be switched on if the first burned out. I remember teachers having to send students to the media center for replacement bulbs before a lecture begin due to the bulb burn out.

I was the guy who did the bulb run for my classes back in high school. Media center was the library. Mostly ENX bulbs. They had EYB bulbs (didn’t get any of those) which is same halogen bulb minus the MR16 reflector. Tossed them long ago after keeping for a while. Ended up getting new bulbs for myself post HS so out goes the dead ones. High school was when I started into this lighting hobby. A dead ENX bulb from HS is probably hiding in one of my boxes. If I find it, in the trash it goes.

Oh, as for the overhead projectors... I have one of them. A 3M brand one. https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=1603&pos=1&pid=140614

When I was in grade school, most of classrooms had an overhead projector and most teachers still used them in their lessons. I think Bell and Howell and Eiki were the commmonly used brands in the schools I attended. I also remember the markers that the teachers and the cardboard frames used with the more heavily used transparencies to reinforce them.

Later on in high school I had to use them to give out presentations in class, we used Powerpoint to make the slides and printed them out to transparencies to use on the overhead projector. My high school had a couple of newer video projectors but they were shared amongst the classrooms whereas pretty much every classroom still had a overhead projector.

In university pretty much all the classrooms were equipped with video projectors and computers so most professors used either Powerpoint slides or the document camera. A few lecture halls still had overhead projectors and a couple of professors still taught using overheads.

Also remember the old style filmstrips and the accompanying cassette tape that narrated the filmstrip from a few classes too. The cassette tape had a beep between narrations to tell the teacher when to advance the film.

Also remember the old style filmstrips and the accompanying cassette tape that narrated the filmstrip from a few classes too. The cassette tape had a beep between narrations to tell the teacher when to advance the film.

That was the manual way of doing it. We had some teachers who did that.

There existed fully automatic machines that had the filmstrip projector and cassette player in one unit. The beep triggered the auto change mechanism so no human interaction was required during the presentation. I don't remember if the beep was audible or not in automatic machines.

I mainly like the overhead projectors due to the fact that we used to have them in in elementary school. all the overhead projectors we had were 3M units. bulbs used to need to be replaced once in a while. after a number of years, the school switched to DLP projectors that were very reliable. after a while they switched to LCD projectors with HDMI and 1080p. they were hitachi units. I got some dead units over the years  and fixed them and use them at home to watch movies and for karaoke parties in the barn to display graphics.

I still have a Leitz 35mm slide projector that belonged to my late father. It uses a straight slide carrier though, not the carousel type. Unfortunately, the carrier has gone missing, so I can't use it unless I can find a replacement. I did look online and they are available, but funds don't permit right now. I also have a Philips audio cassette machine which was designed to work with a projector and there is an interface lead that allows you to set slides to change at pre-determined times according to where you are in the soundtrack.

I heard about the automatic filmstrip projectors with the cassette deck built in but I don't think I've seen one in use.

I also have a few decommissioned school LCD projectors, mostly older 720p units with DVI/VGA ports one of which I mounted up to watch movies and play video games on at home.

I heard about the automatic filmstrip projectors with the cassette deck built in but I don't think I've seen one in use.

I also have a few decommissioned school LCD projectors, mostly older 720p units with DVI/VGA ports one of which I mounted up to watch movies and play video games on at home.

The system I have isn't a composite unit, it's a separate projector and tape deck with a control box/interface cable between them. I'll take photos and post them in the off topic gallery tomorrow.

For a school speech I did used a Bessler Opaque projector to project pictures from a book as my aids.You had to be careful with these projectors-the subject you are projecting will get HOT VERY QUICKLY and even burn if left in the stage of the opaque projector for more than about a minute.It used a 1.5Kw halogen bulb to light the subject and project it.You also had to talk loudly over the projectors blower.

I have two Overhead projectors I bought from yard sales-along with a screen and several pull down maps.Have a liking towards old school equipment.The sellers used those for their home schooling-when thru they sold the items at their yard sale.Also bought one of my projectors and screen from a church.Have several 16mm projectors I bought from thrift places.Have a portable 35mm projector-Holmes-I bought from a movie memrablia collector-along with a box of 35mm film trailers-one being the orig Star Wars!Also MANY movie banners-like those!!!often easier to get and cheaper than 1 sheet movie posters.

I mostly like computer projectors, but I only have a cheap Chinese "budget projector". It's a step up from my first one at 720p instead of 480p, but (even though the first one was a POS all around), this one (which I've had for less than 2 years) is starting to make a habit of turning off randomly (it isn't even hot!) and not "wanting" to turn back on until almost an hour after it turned off!

I used to have an overhead projector when i was younger. I took apart a portable dvd players LED and took off its backlight and stuck the LCD panel over the surface to watch movies. It took a powerful halogen lamp that produced alot of heat. Other times id let my brothers scribble with dry erase markers on the glass to shine drawings on the wall. Fun times


These days i just have a collection of video projectors. Latest one is a casio laser projector. Acts like DLP by Using a blue laser which combines with red light from a Red LED bulb, shines onto a wheel with green phosphor and a space and goes to the DMD chip. It is rated for up to 20000 hours. So far its on 8000