What is the benchmark?

[Bradfo69]

I was having a discussion with polishedball today that really got me thinking after we had hung up. What is the benchmark or "zero point" that sets the standard? For all of this stuff.

We were talking about colors and for example, that in an A-B comparison between a show on HD24 and a show played through a soundcard DAC that the colors were more accurate processed through the HD24. Well... accurate to what? How do we know what laser the artist was using when they created the show?

Similar output between a whitelight gas laser alongside an RGB solid state projector are certainly different in terms of color. In terms of beam quality. In terms of wavelength. What is "right" versus what is "off" a little? Who's making the rules? Who claims to have the "perfect" beam? Many have commented that my CT Lasers built RGB has one of the nicest arctic whites they've ever seen. Does that make it "right"? Some girls at SELEM commented on how much they liked the colors on the projector I bought from smogthemog. I forgot just how nice they were until I studied it again. But again... we know they're not "right" since the green is still running underpowered.

I recall when getting into this hobby people talking about how, just like high end stereo for example, there is a certain level of performance to be achieved at a certain reasonable level of money but, chasing that extra 3% or 5% of performance cost thousands more. Again...what are we using as the benchmark?

Just musing...

[Displaser]

There's a benchmark?

Aren't we all on a quest for better beam profiles, modulation and more output power?.... For me, I think the "benchmark" is what you can achieve, within your budget, that provides you with nice results. One thing that we all likely suffer from, is the quest for perfection and being irked at the small irregularities in our equipment/images that most of our audiences will never notice. Everything that we use now is doomed to be outdated at some point anyway - aside from the weight, power reqs, fragility and hassles of water-cooled equipment, I'd like to think that the bar was set back in the "age of ions" (quote credit: Greg Makhov). That's where my first impressions were made and what ultimately I will compare everything to (as far as lasers go....)

Scanners and software? to be continued....