Sony VPL-VW1000ES Projector – Image Quality 2

VPL-VW1000ES Black Levels & Shadow Detail

Below, our usual Starship set of images from The 5th Element.  To see how good blacks are, just note how light the letterbox area is, compared to the starship.  If the letterbox area is very dim, and the starship totally overexposed, that shows more range, than if the letterbox is brighter, or the starship less overexposed.  Many of these images have been converted to grayscale, so the shifts in color don’t make it harder to judge them.

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Shadow Detail Performance

Dark shadow detail is good, but relative to all the strengths of this Sony projector, it has to be considered one of the Sony’s least impressive levels of performance.  It’s not hard to find other good projectors that will reveal a touch more dark shadow detail, but, as I often point out, the better the black levels, the darker the darkest shadow details are, and therefore hardest to spot. Look, I can get a touch more dark shadow detail out of a number of projectors some as inexpensive as the $2700 Epson 5010 (you’ll find that image below) – for a comparison look at the line of shrubs behind the tracks, on the middle-right and far right of the image.  Let’s not worry about that however.  As I have often stated in reviews, a slight loss of dark shadow detail is a very minor thing, compared to even a slight increase in black level performance.  In other words, don’t worry about it!

Our major comparison uses the night train scene from Casino Royale. Look to the trees and shrubs on the right, especially just above the tracks. The first image is the Sony VPL-1000ES, followed by the 95ES. Then the Mitsubishi HC9000D, followed by the less expensive Sony HW30ES. Fifth is the Epson Home Cinema 5010, followed by the JVC RS25, and the last one is from the Runco LS-10d projector.