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Epson Powerlite Pro G7905U Projector Review – Performance

Posted on August 2, 2016 By Art Feierman

EPSON PRO G7905U PROJECTOR REVIEW – Performance:  Brightness, Image Noise, Audible Noise

This Epson projector beats brightness claims, does well on most types of image noise, as proves quieter than one expects from a projector this powerful.  Details below.

Epson Powerlite Pro G7905U Brightness

Epson Pro G7905U projector Brightness: 7258 lumens maximum.  

Epsons that we have measured previously for color lumens as well as white ones, achieve about the same number of color lumens as white. Expect the same here.

To get this lumen number, measurements were taken using Dynamic mode, at full (Normal) power, with the 1.6:1 “standard” zoom lens, at full wide angle.  The chart below shows the relative brightness of each of the modes. Different lenses and different zoom positions on those lenses will affect measured brightness.

G7905U_test-page_mode_presentation
Epson G7905 in Presentation Mode (second brightest), offers well balanced colors, very good skin tones

Here is a chart showing the brightness of each of the Epson’s six preset modes:

G7905U Brightness – by mode, wide angle on Zoom, full lamp
Mode Dynamic Presentation Cinema sRGB DicomSim Multi
Lumens 7041 5644 5492 5431 5442 5986

There’s more.  Eco mode surprised me.  We find most Epson’s down 25-30% when switching to Eco mode, but the G7905 only looses a fraction more than 20%, a number that should be true, no matter which mode is measured.

Eco Mode on G7905:  5807 lumens
Measured in Dynamic mode, wide angle on zoom

Effect of Zoom Lens on Brightness:

Epson’s standard zoom for this projector, has a 1.6:1 zoom ratio.  For a zoom of this range, performance was good, with only a minimal, almost 3% drop in brightness going from full wide angle (closest positioning of the projector) to mid-zoom.

Better still, moving to full telephoto – furthest placement from the screen, the Epson measured only 17.7% lower than full wide angle.  

In Dynamic mode, at full power, that worked out to 5975 lumens.

Remember, other zoom lenses will have their own characteristics.  Expect the very long throw zoom lenses to be visibly less bright (as is typical with longer throw lenses, as any serious photographer knows).

Image Noise

No surprises here, in that overall, image noise, using all the default settings was minor. Mosquito noise was minimal, better than the usual DLP projector, but typical for 3LCD.

Motion noise was a bit more challenging.  And don’t forget – mpeg noise reduction is disabled when you are using pixel shifting, no matter whether on 2K or 4K content.

Slow panning at a certain speed could be better.  I like to run the neighborhood panning scene from the movie RED. The Epson definitely shows a lot of judder, but in fairness, not as much as the Sony projectors which seem to have particular trouble with that scene.

Other:  As one would expect, engaging CFI – creative frame interpolation, generates some noise around moving objects, the higher the CFI setting, the more noise.  Nothing unusual here, not enough noise to be “obvious.”

Audible Noise

The G7905U is a 7,000 lumen projector, so it has little business being in a 180 sq foot room like my testing room projecting only on a 100″ diagonal screen. Typical usage for it might be a 10,000 sq. ft room, and a 15 to 20 foot wide screen.

On paper Epson quotes 39 db at full power and 31 in Eco.  In a strange comparison, Epson’s popular 2400 lumen 5030UB home theater projector is, of course, quieter, as it should be.  Still, the Epson HT projector claims 32db, vs. 39db at full power on these G series projectors.

For even a better perspective, this G7905 claims 31 db in Eco, so can put out almost 6000 lumens on the screen max, while being slightly quieter than their home theater projector running full out!   I didn’t expect that.

Still, Epson’s (and Sony’s for that matter) laser projectors are both even quieter than the G7905 – for example, the L1505 we reviewed, claimed only 33db at full power.

Bottom line – impressively quiet for a 7000 lumen projector, but not the quietest out there.

Epson Powerlite Pro G7905 Projector Review – Picture Quality
Epson Powerlite Pro G7905U Projector Review – Summary