I have no experience with the Rollei projectors you mention, but had an old Liesegang Fantax 600A which I got for cheap on *bay and upgraded for a PCP80 at some point. I would expect the Rollei to be between the 2 in terms of performance.
There are several points to consider when comparing projectors:
- build quality: here, both are (almost) equally good. The PCP is a beast, but the Fantax is not especially made of plastic. Not quite as robustly built as the PCP, but still. The Fantax does not have electronics to fail.
- illumination: here the PCP wins hands down. Projecting an "empty" slide mount shows a huge difference. The PCP illumination is very even up to the corners, whereas the Fantax shows strong light fall-off in the corners. In practice, however, it does not make such a difference! (I did not expect this)
- optical quality: I was lucky enough that my Fantax was fitted with a good (glass, not plastic) lens. The PCP has top notch lenses. However, the difference is minimal here. I expect a plastic lens would have a huge drop in quality, though.
- other features: the PCP has perspective control, which is great if you project from a lower point than your screen. Can be alleviated in practice IMO. The PCP can also connect a dissolve unit, but you will need the unit and a 2nd projector... (expensive)
- cost: the PCP cost anywhere north of $1000 those days, and magazines run $100 or more (which is crazy if you ask me). I have seen Rolleis for about 150 euros here in Germany.
Bottom line, yes the PCP80 is good, real good, but does the difference justify the price tag? I do not think so. In my opinion the PCP is over-hyped. Cheaper projectors will provide you 99% of the performance at a much lower cost. Just be sure you get good optics with it.
Sorry for the off-topic digression.
